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THE CARPENTER AND HIS KINGDOM 



THE CARPENTER 
AND HIS KINGDOM 

by 

ALEXANDER IRVINE 

Author of "My Lady of the Chimney Corner" 
"The Souls of Poor Folks," etc. 



NEW YORK 

CHARLES SCRIBNER'S SONS 

1922 



t> 



<-^o 



V 



Copyright, 1922, by 
CHARLES SCRIBNER'S SONS 



Printed in the United States of America 



Published February, 1922 




MAR -7 1922 
©CI.A654845 



CONTENTS 



CHAPTER I 

THE FRIEND WHO PREPARED THE WAY 

PAGE 

John the Baptist, his personality, manner of life, peculiarities 
and message. — His connection with the Essenes. — He bap- 
tizes Jesus and introduces Him. — The Harmony of Jesus 
and John. — The differences between the irdisciples. — Lack 
of details in the Gospels. — He is imprisoned by Herod 
Antipas. — His doubts. — His message to Jesus. — His death. 
— The startling comment of Jesus on John. Paragraphs 

I-I2 I 



CHAPTER II 

IN THE DAYS OF HIS YOUTH 

The Childhood and Youth of Jesus. — His folks, His home, 
and the times in which He lived. — Jewish laws, sects, and 
parties. — Foreigners and foreign influence. — The Messianic 
hope. — The silent years. — His farewell to Nazareth. Para- 
graphs 13-21 20 



CHAPTER III 

BEGINNING AT CAPERNAUM 

Why Capernaum disappeared from the knowledge of men. — 
His first circle of friends. — His first sermon. The sim- 
plicity of the good news. — Opposition of the Elders. — 
The democracy of the new religion. — Unity in diversity. — 
A picture of the Kingdom. — The training of the Twelve. 
Paragraphs 22-27 34 



vi CONTENTS 

CHAPTER IV 

VOICES HE HEARD IN THE WOODS 

PAGE 

The Spiritual struggle in the wilderness. — The temptation of 
physical hunger. — Good and Evil. — The call of the spirit. 
— The struggle for bread. — Truth, goodness, and beauty. 
— Labour the door to bread. — Power, its use and abuse. — 
The two Messiahs. — The two paths. — Calm after storm. 
Paragraphs 28-30 42 

CHAPTER V 

THE CIRCLE OF INTIMATE FRIENDS 

Fishermen became fishers of men. — Why working men were 
chosen. — A Sceptic and a Publican. — A farewell party. 
— Jesus accused of consorting with sinners. — The lesser 
lights. — He changes some of their names. — His relatives 
believe Him to be mad. — If Jesus should come again. — 
The gangrene of respectability. — The charm of His 
personality. Paragraphs 31-35 51 



CHAPTER VI 

THE MIND OF THE MASTER 

Jesus as problem. — Questions of the ages. — Greek culture and 
the art of living. — His power as a teacher. — He was get-at- 
able. — Jesus contrasted with modern religious teachers. — 
Christianity and Buddhism. — Jesus and the child. — The 
ultimate guide to God. — The conversion of an abandoned 
woman. — Jesus as influence. — How His mind affects other 
minds. Paragraphs 36-46 61 



CHAPTER VII 

THE MASTER AND LABOUR 

Jesus as a working man. — The Jewish attitude toward labour. 
— The 'Superior' classes. — Slavery in Greek, Roman, 
Jewish, and Christian civilisations. — Jesus a builder. — 
His vocabulary. — Jesus shared with the workers the stigma 
of ignorance. — They share with Him His attitude toward 
organised religion. Paragraphs 47-52 .... 79 



CONTENTS vii 

CHAPTER VIII 

HIS MIND AND OTHER MINDS 

PAGE 

Jesus and Nicodemus. — The little man who climbed a tree to 
see Jesus. — The choice of the rich young ruler. — The home 
at Bethany. — The problem of kitchen-mindedness. — 
Lazarus and his sisters. — The conversation with a woman 
of Samaria, to whom He denned God and worship.— Jesus 
and usury. His ideas repudiated in modern business. — 
Expulsion of the Jews from England a matter of business 
Paragraphs 53-58 86 



CHAPTER IX 

THE MASTER'S MAGNA CHARTA 

The Sermon on the Mount as a charter of liberties and as a 
basic statement of the principles of life. — The poor and 
the poor in spirit. — Denunciation of the rich. — Thought 
and action. — Divorce. — Untruthfulness and laws against 
perjury. — Casuistry and lying. — Non-resistance. — The 
golden rule. — Kindness — Courtesy — Worship. — Almsgiv- 
ing. — Prayer. — Fasting. — Judging. — The house built on a 
rock. — Review of the charter. — How the spiritual laws 
work. — Unity of life in God. — The faith of a Roman soldier 
— The Lord's Prayer. — Review of the Prayer. Para- 
graphs 59-81 99 



CHAPTER X 

THE KINGDOM OF GOD 

The Philosophy of the spirit. — As a little child. — Citizenship 
in the Kingdom. — Differences fused in the alembic of love. 
— Contempt for the world. — Love and Law. — Rank. — Dig- 
nities. — Titles. — Distinctions. — Who is my neighbour? — 
The essence of Religion. — The Institutions of the Kingdom 
— The Kingdom and the Church. — The Kingdom ignored 
by the Church. — The Kingdom the real custodian of the 
faith. — The Kingdom illustrated and illuminated by par- 
ables. — Simon the Pharisee. — A certain King. — The re- 
ligion of a Heretic. — The Good Samaritan. Paragraphs 
83-112 129 



viii CONTENTS 

CHAPTER XI 

THE KINGDOM IN ACTION 

PAGE 

The ethics of importunity. — The mind of a Capitalist. — The 
Pharisee and the Publican. — Work and Wages. — Courage 
and deceit. — The lost sheep. — The Prodigal Son. — The 
>w Sower. — The Grain of Mustard Seed. — The Parable of the 
Leaven. — The Wheat and the Tares. — Social Democracy 
in the Kingdom. — Religion in rags. — Foolish Virgins. — 
The Parable of the Talents. Paragraphs 113- 130 . 154 

CHAPTER XII 

THE EMOTIONS OF JESUS 

Anger, wonder, compassion, joy, and geniality. — His direct 
method of dealing with hypocrisy. — He was an atmos- 
phere of spiritual helpfulness into which all men could 
easily enter at all times. — A jury of His followers com- 
pared with a jury of harlots. — His wonder at the faith of a 
pagan. — Soul health and Greek culture compared. Para- 
graphs I3I-I35 l8 5 

CHAPTER XIII 

THE HUMANITY OF THE MASTER 

Sayings of Jesus used as a cloak for meanness. — The economic 
background of the Kingdom. — Poverty and the soul of 
Man. — His attitude towards disease, discomfort, and un- 
rest. — The victims of oppressive laws and customs found 
in Him a way out. — His love for little children. — The 
slavery of children under modern Christian civilisation. 
Paragraphs 136-139 196 



CHAPTER XIV 

MISSING THE MARK 

The Master's attitude towards sin compared with that of 
Paul and the theologians. — Sin is missing the mark. — His 
eyes too pure to behold iniquity. — The new command- 
ment.— Jesus accused by the religious leaders of consorting 
with sinners. — The prayer of Empedocles. — Around a 
forest fire. — His word picture of the Final Judgment. 
Paragraphs 140-142 205 



CONTENTS ix 

CHAPTER XV 

THE MASTER AND MAMMON 

PAGE 

Mammon the destroyer of souls. — The spiritual difficulties of 
the rich. — Jesus the champion of the poor. — His dream 
of a spiritual democracy, in which material wealth was to 
play a minor part. — Mammon modernised and made re- 
spectable. — Mammon has many names. — He is the arch 
enemy of the Kingdom of God. Paragraphs 143-145 . 217 

CHAPTER XVI 

CONSPIRACY AND MURDER 

The murder of the Master. — Deserted by His friends. — 
Beaten, insulted, and taken by force. — Before Pilate. — 
The mob mind. — Campanella quoted. — The fate of Jesus 
and Savanrola. — His condemnation a violation of both 
Roman and Jewish law. — The first Easter morn. — Is there 
a physical resurrection? Paragraphs 146-15 1 . . 225 

CHAPTER XVII 

WHO THEN ARE CITIZENS OF THE KINGDOM? 

The theology of Jesus. — The essence of His teaching. — The 
universal note. — Love to the Father — Love to each other. 
— The transference of thought. — The practice of the Pres- 
ence. Paragraphs 152-153 241 



THE CARPENTER AND HIS 
KINGDOM 

CHAPTER I 

THE FRIEND WHO PREPARED THE WAY 
T I 

The Records 

The story of John the Baptist as found in the Gospels 
is amazingly brief. Mark tells it in a few sentences. 
Matthew gives more than twice as much material 
as Mark, but half of it concerns the miraculous inci- 
dents surrounding John's birth. Luke gives the long- 
est account, but two-thirds of it concern the life of 
John's father and mother. 

The account in the fourth Gospel is brief but dra- 
matic. In the first three Gospels, John is objective, 
intense — a man of action. In the fourth he is subjec- 
tive, and is used as a reflector of the light of the 
Logos. 

AH of them write of John with a distinctly theo- 
logical motive. One dominant note pervades them 
all. John was the fulfilment of the Old Testament 
prophecy. He is made to fit with accuracy into frames 
made by Elijah and Isaiah and Malachi. That, how- 
ever, does not rob him of personality. In the Gospels 
there is one major and many minor characters. John 
is the major of all minors. 

Fragments of Information 

At least a generation passed before any one com- 
mitted to writing the events which convulsed Israel 



2 THE CARPENTER AND HIS KINGDOM 

in John's day. That is a long time to trust even the 
best memories. What we get in the Gospels is not a 
biography. We get a synopsis of the life of Jesus and 
fragments of information concerning the life of John. 
The essentials are there. Sometimes, they are in the 
form of unattractive naked truth, sometimes in truth 
that is clothed and articulate, which is a higher form 
of the same thing. 

Pen Picture of John 

The picture of John is that of an unkempt and 
uncouth man who suddenly bursts upon the scene 
and with a fiery tongue calls upon the people to 
repent. The response is immediate and sincere. 
There must have been those who knew him. He was 
born at Hebron of well-known parents. He belonged 
to the order of the priesthood, but from the beginning 
he stood outside the pale of either synagogue or temple. 
The time was ripe for change. Religion had degener- 
ated into dead formalism. The new voice seemed full 
of hope. He had just emerged from the Wilderness, 
where for years he had been concentrating his mind 
on spiritual things. Israel was in dire need of a 
revival, and the revivalist had arrived. Instantly 
there followed what seemed a massed conviction of 
sin, and the people in large crowds followed him wher- 
ever he went. He was a rather violent contrast to 
the special caste of religious goodness known as the 
Pharisees. He was without official sanction, he belonged 
to none of the prevalent schools. Ruthlessly he had 
thrown aside their time-honoured customs of feasts, 
fast, and phalacteries. His shaggy black hair was 
matted on his white brow. Instead of a priestly jibba, 
he wore the untanned skin of a wild beast, which 
was held close to his body by a rough leather thong. 
He not only threw overboard the useless baggage of 
prescribed habiliments, but he discarded the law as 
it related to food. He lived on what nature provided 
in the fastnesses of the mountains, the honey of wild 



FRIEND WHO PREPARED THE WAY 3 

bees and locusts and dried flies. He avoided all kinds 
of strong drink, he ate no flesh. In the storehouse of 
nature everything to him was Kosher. It is more 
than probable that John had spent some years with 
the Essenes, a Jewish sect that was a protest against 
Judaism. It was a communistic cult that lived the 
simple life in the wilderness where they worshipped 
God, cultivated the soil, and held things in common. 



if 2 

Essenism and Christianity 

Christian historians have always seemed very much 
afraid to say anything commendable about the appar- 
ent strivings of this off-shoot of Judaism, which was 
more in common with Christianity than with the 
religion of Israel. That it was an ethical and spiritual 
improvement on the older system, none can deny. 
They prohibited oaths, they prohibited slavery, they 
healed the sick, and devoted themselves to fasting and 
prayer. With regard to slavery they did not content 
themselves with holding a theory about it. They for- 
bade its practice absolutely within their jurisdiction. 
In comparing the Christian and Essenic attitude toward 
slavery, Neander says: 'The law of the Essenes pro- 
hibited and so was Christ's intended to subvert it. 
The sect agreed with the Saviour in seeing that all men 
alike bear the image of God, and that none have the 
right by holding their fellows as property, to degrade 
that image into a brute or a chattel. So far, Essenism 
and Christianity agree, but see wherein they differ. 
The one was a formula for a small circle of devotees; 
the other was a system for the regeneration of man- 
kind: the one made positive enactments, acting by 
pressure from without, the other implanted new moral 
principles to work from within: the one put its law 
in force at, and declared that no slave could be held 
in the communion: the other gave no direct command 



4 THE CARPENTER AND HIS KINGDOM 

upon the subject. Yet the whole spirit of Christ's 
teaching tended to create in men's minds a moral sense 
of the evil of a relation so utterly subversive of all that 
is good in humanity, and thus to effect its entire 
prohibition.' 

The soundness of a principle does not depend upon 
the number of people who hold it — even though a great 
German historian says it does. The simple answer to 
Neander's comparison is, that despite what Christ's 
teaching 'tended to create' in men's mind, it did not 
create it sufficiently effectively to abolish slavery. 
Christians practised and believed in it for over eighteen 
centuries after Christ's death. 

Foolish Fear 

The background of such casuistry seems to be a 
hidden fear that the Essenes exerted an influence on 
the beginnings of Christianity. The fear, though fool- 
ish, is well founded. Like the Pilgrim Fathers, the 
Essenes went out and braved the dangers and desola- 
tions of the deserts in order to be free to worship God 
according to the new light. The sect did not take 
the world by storm. Pioneers blaze a pathway and lay 
foundations, others follow and build. The Essenes 
followed their light, but their light faded, as the rays 
of a candle fade before the brighter rays of the sun. 

A Candle in Sunlight 

If John the Baptist came out from amongst them 
it was because his dominating personality was too 
pronounced to fuse in the democratic community. He 
followed their glimmer until he saw the brighter light. 
As they outgrew Judaism, he outgrew them. The red- 
hot message of his fiery soul demanded a larger anvil 
on which to be hammered out. On the banks of the 
Jordan he found a world anvil in the workshop of the 
world's religion. 



FRIEND WHO PREPARED THE WAY S 

If 3 
The Ministry of the Baptist 

Let us examine his message: It was a trumpet call 
to repentance. The call was not new. He gave it a 
new emphasis. When the Rabbis called, Israel seemed 
deaf. The prophets had called, but they were all dead; 
their call had been committed to writing, but it was 
a mere echo — revered but disregarded. The call of 
Isaiah was the most pungent, the most clear. It was 
a diagnosis, a rebuke, and a remedy. He saw the 
decay of the spirit and the growth of formalism. He 
told Israel it was futile to afflict their souls and leave 
the state of the soul unchanged. He told them that 
God could make Jews out of the stones under their feet. 

What to do 

A crowd on the banks of Jordan differed little from 
a crowd on the banks of the Thames or the Rhine or 
the Hudson. 'What shall we do?' they shouted at 
John. They know just as well as John, how to realise 
the ideal presented, but they wanted the assistance of 
his authority and the moral pressure of his advice. 
To readjust themselves mentally, was an easy task, 
but the adoption of a new mental attitude, that would 
disturb their economic status was not quite so easy. 
His answers were apt and to the point. They were to 
get out of the darkness and to face the light. They 
were to throw off heavy burdens that shackled their 
souls, and in spiritual freedom bring forth works meet 
for repentance, and in harmony with their changed 
condition of mind. The background of John's power 
was not merely the spiritual passion that possessed 
him. He was the exemplification of what he taught. 
His programme was less revolutionary than that of 
Jesus, but as far as it went it was just as specific. 
Micah, in what is considered the highest ethical note 
in the Old Testament, tells Israel that the supreme 



6 THE CARPENTER AND HIS KINGDOM 

requirements of Jehovah are: 'to do justly, to love 
mercy, and to work humbly with God.' 

The Mass Mind 

On the banks of the Jordan, John reiterates with 
power this message. His words burned themselves 
into the conscience. Under such burning eloquence 
the crowd acts as one person, it moves in a positive 
direction. A reaction may come later — when the bar- 
rage lifts, they think. But for the time being, the crowd 
is moved out of a negative into a positive state of mind. 
It was thus with John's preaching. The Evangelists 
tell us that all Judea and all Jerusalem came out to 
hear and were baptized. All may have gone out, and 
all may have undoubtedly been influenced, but when 
John castigated without reserve certain groups and 
called them 'a generation of vipers,' we must under- 
stand that a reaction followed, and he was as bitterly 
opposed by those in power as was Jesus. 

Answers to Questions 

Luke groups the questioners. To a certain group — 
evidently the well-to-do — John said: 'he that hath two 
coats let him impart to him that hath none, and he 
that hath meat, let him do likewise.' Then ( came the 
Publicans, and to their questions he answered: 'extort 
no more than that which is appointed you.' The sol- 
diers came and put the same questions, and he said: 
'Put not man in fear, accuse no man falsely and be 
content with your allowance.' 

Living Word 

One Evangelist tells us that he characterised the 
multitude as a generation of vipers, and another says 
he reserved that characterisation for the Pharisees and 
Sadducees. The latter may have had it twice without 
feeling that they had more than their share. The 



FRIEND WHO PREPARED THE WAY 7 

more intelligent of those who listened must have recog- 
nised the words of Malachi in his discourses, but it 
would be a mistake to suppose that it was a mere 
mechanical reiteration. His work lay athwart the lines 
of priestly routine, but his words they had considered 
dead. The same is true of his baptism. He gave a 
new meaning to an old institution. Baptism was not 
an exclusively Jewish rite. The surrounding nations 
had practised it in a variety of forms. 

f 4 

The Meeting of Jesus and John 

The introduction of Jesus and John is sudden and 
dramatic. Although cousins, they were apparently 
strangers to each other. They followed widely diver- 
gent pathways — pathways which however widely apart 
now merged in an angle for a moment before diverging 
again. Scientific men have utterly failed to locate the 
spot where the meeting occurred. It is just as well. 
It was the locality of the spirit from which a new way 
led out — away out — to the ends of the earth. 

'And it came to pass in those days that Jesus came 
from Nazareth and was baptized of John in the Jordan.' 

Thus Mark condenses in one brief sentence material 
enough for many volumes. Matthew adds a signifi- 
cant detail. When Jesus asked for Baptism, John 
demurred: 'I have need to be baptized of thee, and 
comest Thou to me?' This may imply either previous 
acquaintance or a knowledge gained at the moment 
by the keen penetrating intellect of the Baptist. 
The latter seems the most probable though both may 
be true. 'Suffer it to be so now,' 1 Jesus said, 'for 
thus it becometh us to fulfil all righteousness.' 

We are not quite clear as to the meaning of this 
sentence, but the fact that He was baptized in the 
Jordan by John and in the presence of a multitude 
is sufficient to convince us that He considered it the 
correct thing to do. 



8 THE CARPENTER AND HIS KINGDOM 

11 5 
Baptism 

Baptism is a symbol, an outward symbol of an in- 
ward spiritual fact. It is more than that, it is a symbol 
of unity — unity of faith and purpose. It is also the 
gateway into the Kingdom. In the ministry of John 
it followed confession of sin. It typified the cleansing 
of the soul. Jesus accepted it not for His own sake, but 
as an act of leadership and in endorsement of John and 
as an example to the flock, out of which He was to 
draw His disciples later. 

In the passing centuries, Baptism has changed not 
only in form but in substance. With some it remains 
what it was on the banks of the Jordan — the symbol 
of a new life. With others it became a sacrament, and 
as such, to them, an essential in the plan of salvation. 
This conception has been carried to such an extreme 
that the door of the kingdom of heaven swings on the 
hinges of this strange theory. 

Conflicting Theories 

Ecclesiastical rigour has somewhat relaxed. Until 
recently the damnation of infants was an accepted 
tenet of some creeds. Even baptized infants had to 
receive the Eucharist or be equally damned with the 
unbaptized. This was harder on the Ecclesiastics than 
on the infants — whom it affected only in theory. That 
such theories should be based on the Gospel, and that 
they should have persisted so long, seems incompre- 
hensible. In our day there is more liberty of interpre- 
tation. The controversy over baptism, though not yet 
relegated to the limbo of extinct controversies has been 
considerably modified. There are many forms, but 
there is one baptism. There is but one Kingdom, but 
there are many entrances. The letter mystifies before 
it kills — it is the spirit of the thing that illuminates 
and gives life. 



FRIEND WHO PREPARED THE WAY 9 

11 6 
Differences 

At all points of personal contact Jesus and "John 
are in perfect harmony. John came first and prepared 
the way. When Jesus came He at once recognised 
and proclaimed him. From the first moment there is 
no variableness nor shadow of turning in the Baptist. 
Why the two leaders should go different ways we do 
not know. John goes his way and his disciples follow 
him. Jesus was as yet without followers. He goes and 
calls disciples. He never repudiated John. John was 
true to death. 

Misunderstanding 

In the course of time there arose misunderstandings 
between the two groups of disciples. John had a strict 
training. Naturally he imparted part of the discipline 
to his followers. When Jesus had called His disciples 
and had entered upon His ministry, His disciples said: 
'Master, teach us to pray, as John also taught his 
disciples.' The answer of Jesus was the Lord's Prayer. 
When the disciples of John heard of the popularity of 
Jesus they spoke to John about it. John's reply is 
characteristic: 'He that hath the bride is the bride- 
groom: but the friend of bridegroom, which standeth 
and heareth him rejoiceth at the bridegroom's voice: 
this my joy therefore is fulfilled.' 

Later the disciples of John came to Jesus and said: 
'Why do we and the Pharisees fast, and Thy disciples 
fast not?' It is a simple question simply put. It 
shows they were on friendly terms and familiar. 
The answer of Jesus is startling. He takes the 
very metaphor John used, and by it illustrates 
His answer: 'Can the sons of the bridechamber 
mourn as long as the bridegroom is with them? 
But the days shall come when the bridegroom shall 
be taken away from them — then shall they fast.' 



io THE CARPENTER AND HIS KINGDOM 

The Winnowing Fan 

Here were differences, but they were differences of 
feethod. The two groups were travelling along dif- 
mrent roads, but they were journeying toward the same 
destination. John went on preaching and baptizing. 
His enthusiasm did not wane. The urge of the soul 
drove him into an unusual self-abandonment. He spoke 
without caution or reserve. His words were like barbed 
arrows. Where they penetrated they remained. Crowds 
continued to listen and followers increased, but the 
officials began to oppose him. His logic forced them to 
seek cover in one of two positions. They must abandon 
the old regime and follow him, or reject him and defend 
it. They drew away from John. Soon he felt their 
opposition. He had attacked sin in high places, that 
relieved the Pharisees of personally bringing John to 
task. They informed the court that he was dangerous. 
He was. AH men who have a sense of the reality of 
God know not what fear is. They couldn't starve John. 
They couldn't curtail his clothing. They could take 
his life, but on that John himself set little value. 

f 7 
John Leaves Galilee 

The leaven of the Pharisees began to work. The 
huge gatherings dwindled down to negligible numbers, 
and it was probably John's most intimate disciples who 
urged him to continue his work, beyond the Jordan. 
Details of his movements are very meagre. A sen- 
tence covers miles of travelling and months of time. 
The scraps of information are used largely as filling 
for the Evangelists in their difficult task of putting 
together what men remembered. We do not know who 
went with him. Disciples visited him in prison. They 
probably went with him, and shared the pleasures and 
hardships of the journey. 



FRIEND WHO PREPARED THE WAY n 

Truth and Simplicity 

We do not read of him visiting his birthplace, nor 
do we know whether any of his relatives were amongst 
his followers. Home to him was where he found a 
couch. He carried no baggage. He had no encum- 
brances. For companions he had converts. His temple 
floor was the earth beneath his feet, the dome was the 
vault of heaven above his head. Instead of preistly 
robes of the temple service, be wore what nature pro- 
vided in its rough, raw state. His food was simple 
and easily obtained. The requirements of the flesh 
were reduced to the lowest degree. He lived the simple 
life, millenniums before the world ever dreamed of a 
cult of that character. Life to him was a spiritual 
pilgrimage. The vision never grew dim. His mission 
changed not, whether he preached to crowds or small 
groups. 

Somewhere out there beyond Jordan, he came in 
contact with Jesus for the last time. Some commen- 
tators are of the opinion that a change came over John. 
John 3, 31-36 is cited as evidence. The passage is in 
the language of the author. It is his style, his thought. 
It is mystical and theological. It looks like a running 
comment on the well-known humility and loyalty of 
the Baptist. 

Taking into consideration the difference in the ac- 
counts, we have reason to believe that his ministry 
beyond Jordan was of brief duration. He had left the 
jurisdiction of Pilate, for the more dangerous territory 
of Herod Antipas. 

Mark gives the fullest and most graphic account of 
John's arrest, and imprisonment by Antipas, though it 
is at this time that Luke and Matthew give us the most 
startling comment that Jesus ever made on John. 

John in Prison 

' Herodias had a quarrel with him. and would have 
killed him,' says Mark 6, 19. John's fame had probably 



12 THE CARPENTER AND HIS KINGDOM 

preceded him. His name was a household word in all 
Judea and the surrounding countries. The truth he 
preached had a general application to all life, but there 
evidently were times when he was tremendously specific. 

John Attacks Sin in High Places 

Herod Antipas and Herodias were married under 
circumstances which outraged the moral sentiment of 
the people over whom they vulgarly reigned. In order 
to effect the union Antipas divorced his wife, and Hero- 
dias discarded her husband, who was her own uncle and 
brother to Antipas. John probably not only told his 
hearers, but Antipas himself to his face, what he thought 
of the marriage. Herodias made up her mind to put 
John out of the way at once. Antipas restrained her. 
He feared the people. 

The summary disposal of the revolutionist might pre- 
cipitate the revolution, and the hands of the king were 
already full. Herod Antipas seems to have divided his 
royal time between Tiberius and the fortress or castles 
of Macherus in which John was imprisoned. His fol- 
lowers had access to him. Naturally his disciples were 
depressed — and questioned John about the outcome of 
his ministry, his imprisonment, the future, and, of 
course, about his beloved Messiah. Whatever John 
said, whatever hope he gave them, the fact remained 
that he was himself in the hand of Herod Antipas and 
a prisoner! One day when they were more discouraged 
than usual, and consequently more clamorous in their 
questions, John conceived an idea. He knew that he 
was the bond that held them together. His dissolution 
meant their disintegration. The Messiah was in the 
ascendancy. John was withdrawing within the veil. 
He had a duty to them as long as life lasted. It was 
to strengthen their faith, to lead them in their way. 
We can easily imagine the rugged champion saying to 
them: 'True, I am in irons and a victim of that king 
of Bashan above, true, I am physically helpless to 
break the power that holds me here, and in my helpless- 



FRIEND WHO PREPARED THE WAY 13 

ness you ask me if I have changed my mind, on the 
vision that came to me on the banks of the Jordan? 
Go find the beloved One ! Tell Him that he who lingers 
in this dungeon cell, hath sent thee unto Him, saying: 
'Art Thou that One? or shall we look for another ?' 
He will tell thee. He will show thee signs. He will 
take the doubts from thy mind and the sorrow from 
thine hearts. Then shall I die in peace.' 

The men went off with their doubts As they went 
they discussed the serious situation. The fate of John 
looked hopeless. It was unlikely that Herod and Hero- 
dias would condone an attack that held them up to 
the scorn of the people, by whose blood and sweat they 
were enabled to live a voluptuous life. If John should 
be put to death, and Jesus should not be the fulfilment 
of their hope, the case was still worse — it was the death 
of hope. From the darkness behind, to the light be- 
yond, they travelled, and as they journeyed their hearts 
burned within them with hope and fear. 

The khans on the trade routes were the news centres 
of those days. Travellers from all directions exchanged 
the news of one part for that of another. By the inn- 
keepers, the doubting disciples were directed to the 
encampment of the Master and His disciples. 

When they found Him they put the question: 'John 
the Baptist hath sent us unto Thee saying: "Art Thou 
He that should come, or wait we for another?'" 



if 9 

Jesus Sends an Answer to John 

Jesus did not answer the question at once. He bade 
them tarry, and while they tarried they watched. 
He was fully conscious of the delicacy of the situation. 
His Friend and Forerunner was entering the valley of 
the shadow of death. It is possible that John was in 
as much need of strength as were his followers. Great 
men have their moods, their mountains, and valleys 



i 4 THE CARPENTER AND HIS KINGDOM 

of emotions, of faith, and of courage. The answer to 
the question must be specific and satisfactory. It 
was to be his last message to John. The occasion 
demanded — not a mere verbal reiteration, of what had 
been heard before, but a demonstration. While John's 
followers waited they saw Him at work. He was 
surrounded as usual by the poor, the sick, the seekers 
after truth, the sorrowing, and sin stricken. His 
ministry to their needs was His answer. In sub- 
stance He said to the followers of John: 'Go and tell 
John that I am taking away the sin of the world, 
I am healing the sick, giving sight to the blind, 
loosing the slaves, and preaching the Gospel to the 
poor.' It was His programme — the programme He 
had preached in the Synagogue at Nazareth. 



If 10 

The Paradox 

When John's disciples had left, Jesus turned to the 
crowd around Him, and made a statement, the last 
sentence of which is both startling and mysterious. 
He said: — 

'What went ye out into the wilderness for to 
see? A reed shaken with the wind? But what 
went ye out for to see? A man clothed in fine 
raiment? Behold they which are gorgeously ap- 
parelled, and live delicately, are in King's courts. 
But what went ye out for to see? 

A Prophet ? Yea, I say unto you and more than 
a Prophet. This is he of whom it is written — 
Behold I send my messenger before thy face, 
which shall prepare thy ways before thee. Verily 
I say unto you that among them that are born 
of woman, there hath not risen a greater than 
John the Baptist: But he that is least in the 
Kingdom of God is greater than he.' 

Luke vii. 24-28. 



FRIEND WHO PREPARED THE WAY 15 

The account in Matthew is quite different, but the 
startling phrase is the same in both Gospels. Some 
commentators have ventured to suggest that when 
Jesus used the 'less than the least' phrase He referred 
to Himself. That is altogether improbable. On the 
other hand it seems still more improbable that He 
made it sum up the life and ministry of John. 

Most of the commentators get over the difficulty 
by relegating John to the Old Testament dispensation. 
They do that by the same mental process that an 
ancient commentator explained the necessity for four 
Gospels — i.e., 'because the earth has four corners!' 

It may be that John was not the material out of 
which Jesus could make an ambassador. He probably 
was too much wedded to the old to engross Himself 
absolutely and wholly in the new. He was probably 
athwart the lines of the new progress, but we are not 
to suppose that Jehovah limited him to the system whose 
doom He had sent Him to pronounce. It is out of 
keeping with the scheme of things that Samson-like he 
should have taken hold of the pillars of the old regime, 
and brought it down on his own head with a crash. If 
the report is correct, Jesus did not deliver the pro- 
nunciamento until John's disciples had gone to Macherus. 
John therefore died in ignorance of his status. 

The Editorial Hand 

Neither Matthew nor Luke make any attempt to 
explain. There are many places in the New Testament 
where the editorial hand becomes apparent in off- 
setting possible erroneous impressions, and in correct- 
ing mistakes. The author of the fourth Gospel for 
instance tells us in one chapter that Jesus was baptizing 
and in the next corrects his mistake, and just as em- 
phatically tells us that He baptized not. Peter tells 
us that there are many things in the epistles of his 
'beloved brother Paul,' which are 'hard to understand.' 
John tells us that when Jesus spoke of His flesh as 
spiritual food, the disciples frankly confessed that they 



16 THE CARPENTER AND HIS KINGDOM 

did not understand Him. We can only weigh one 
statement with another and arrive at a conclusion by 
an analysis of the spirit rather than the letter. 

His Estimate of John 

The statement of Jesus concerning John is inex- 
plicable because it is out of harmony with the invariable 
and consistent attitude He bore to His messenger. 
4 He was a burning and a shining light,' said Jesus in 
speaking of him, and whatever the meaning of the 
other phrase may be, we are justified in believing that 
the light was bright enough to illuminate his pathway 
out of the old theocracy into the new Kingdom. 

ir ii 

A Bacchanalian Feast 

Herod Antipas had several interviews with John. 
Despite John's plainness of speech, Herod considered 
him 'a good man and holy/ According to Luke, John 
was not merely concerned about Herod's domestic 
affairs, he was familiar with the vile record, and probably 
went over the itemised account in detail. Herod was 
amused, interested, and at times in terror. The inter- 
view reminds us strongly of another such, between 
Elijah and Ahab. In each case a prophet in rags stands 
before a King arrayed in purple and fine linen, moral 
majesty at both interviews confronting a crowned 
murderer. 

Herod's birthday came. Great preparations had been 
made. From the Gospels we learn the kind of people 
who were invited. The army leaders, the rich mer- 
chants, and the land owners, the court officials, and 
whatever or whoever of the parasitic retainers could 
be put under obligation for such an honour. 

Wine, Women, and Music 

It was a small Balshazar's feast with the usual oriental 
trimmings. It was a feast of wine, women, and music. 



FRIEND WHO PREPARED THE WAY 17 

Herodias was the master mind of the occasion. She 
had prepared a subtle stroke for the Batpist. Salome, 
her daughter, was used as the medium by which she 
was to catch the king and hold him where he was weakest. 
The daughter was young and beautiful. She had 
prepared her part, and acted it well. After the food 
and wine, the king and queen and their guests lounged 
around the hall, while Salome performed one of those 
pirouetting performances that never fail to make an 
appeal to the masculine mind. There are dances which 
are music in motion. They appeal to the aesthetic sense 
— the sense of the best and the beautiful in us. There 
are dances which light up into conflagration all the 
fires of our lower nature! Of Salome's contribution we 
need only point to the result. It was the subtlest kind 
of a voluptuous exhibition of writhing, suggestive, 
pirouetting beauty. 

The Sensuous Scene 

Herodias divided her attention between the lecherous 
glances of Herod and the twisting, half-naked form of 
her daughter. She was playing a dangerous game, but 
the stakes were high. She may have had fear but it 
was negligible compared with the spirit of revenge that 
filled her heart like a nest of scorpions. Herod was 
affected by the dance of his adopted daughter. The 
glare of the colours, the glamour of the music, the fasci- 
nation of the form and motion were supplemental to 
the wine-warmed blood in his veins. In a two-fold 
sense he was intoxicated and loudly applauded the 
sensuous scene. Before the dancer could stretch her- 
self on a divan he was at her feet: 'Ask of me what 
you will,' he said passionately, 'and I will give it thee, 
even to the half of my kingdom.' 

Salome's Request 

Salome consulted her mother, and immediately an- 
nounced her choice. ' I will that thou give me forthwith 
in a charger the head of John the Baptist.' 



1 8 THE CARPENTER AND HIS KINGDOM 

'And the king was exceeding sorry,' we are told. 
The request staggered him. He knew not the heart 
of Herodias, nor was he aware of the part played by 
Salome. In the heart of the most insensate brute, 
there is a residue of what we call conscience. He knew 
it was morally wrong, and a political blunder, but he had 
promised, and the guests had heard him. He had re- 
fused Herodias, he knew that he ought to refuse her 
daughter, but he lacked moral courage and took the 
easiest way. 

11 12 

John Beheaded 

If Herod in his momentary hesitation had taken a 
look into the future, he would perhaps have decided 
differently. The decision he rendered has handed his 
name to the world for all time as a synonym of lust 
and murder. Herodias and Salome are none the less 
culpable, but in the word of Herod Antipas resided the 
power, and he used it in defiance of his conscience, to 
pay the price of a moment's pleasure. 

* Right for ever on the scaffold, 
Wrong for ever on the throne; 

Yet that scaffold rules the future, 
And behind the great unknown; 

Standeth God amid the shadows, 
Keeping watch above His own/ 

A soldier was summoned. John was aroused from 
his meditations and beheaded in his cell. The head 
was put in a charger and conveyed to the banqueting 
hall. It was handed to Salome, and she handed it to her 
mother. Herod Antipas probably awoke when the trans- 
fer of the ghastly gift revealed the motive. If he did, 
he awoke too late. He had unwittingly set the crown 
of martyrdom on the head of John, but the act did 
not mitigate the foul stench with which he had asso- 



FRIEND WHO PREPARED THE WAY 19 

dated his own name. The fiendish procedure was the 
finishing touch to a bacchanalia, the infamy of which 
will resound throughout the world, wherever right is 
contrasted with wrong, tyranny with liberty, and the 
canker of lust with the purity of the human heart. 

Thus died the first of the Master's friends — a saint, 
a prophet, a martyr, and one whose imperishable glory 
is that it was he who inaugurated the stupendous 
spiritual revolution in Israel, the chief result of which 
was the bringing forth of the founder of the Christian 
religion to whom he pointed and said, 'Behold the 
Lamb of God!' 



CHAPTER II 

IN THE DAYS OF HIS YOUTH 

IF 13 

Childhood 

The childhood of Jesus is veiled in mystery. Nothing 
is known of His youth. The earliest writers wrote 
from memory — their own, or the memory of others. 
In sifting the true from the less true, or false, much 
material had to be put aside as unavailable for their 
purpose. The rejected material persisted, however, 
and later found a place as a literature by itself. The 
evangelists had a twofold purpose in writing: to record 
the truth and meet the thought of their time. Some 
knowledge of the facts and forces operating at the 
beginning of the Christian Era is essential to an under- 
standing of the life of Jesus. Hence this rapid survey 
of the days of His youth. 

In the Temple 

Only once between infancy and His first appearance 
in public is the veil drawn aside. It is a simple story, 
consistent and authentic. At the age of twelve we 
find Him in the temple questioning the doctors. The 
story is without embellishment. There is a self- 
consciousness — perhaps self-assertiveness that for a 
child of twelve seems rather startling. While Joseph 
and Mary imagined He was following them, He was 
following the bent of His mind, and it led Him to the 
House of Prayer. There, to their astonishment, they 
found Him in the midst of the Elders of Israel. In 
answer to His mother's questioning, He said: 'Wist 

20 



IN THE DAYS OF HIS YOUTH '21 

ye not that I am about my Father's business?' 

The language is unusual, but neither impetuous nor 
precocious. 

Joseph and Mary were of the common people. That 
is an outstanding fact in all records. Whether Joseph's 
line led back to Adam, to whom it is popularly supposed 
we can all be traced, or whether it led to the throne of 
David, the fact remains that the main social stream had 
left him high and dry on the banks of a small tributary 
— he was a carpenter. 

Working People 

If any apology had to be made for that to the 
ancients, none is necessary to us. Kings are not always 
points of departure to be proud of. They are a luxury 
people cannot always afford. Carpenters are a neces- 
sity. Much literary effort has been spent in explaining 
what Canon Farrar calls the 'fallen fortunes' of Joseph 
and Mary. If Joseph 'fell' it is just possible that he 
fell upward out of the parasitic, into the socially useful 
class. 'If a man shall not work, neither shall he eat,' 
was the dictum of Paul, and centuries earlier Moses 
recorded a divine command that 'man should eat bread 
in the sweat of his face' — his own, not the face of 
another. 

If 14 
Nazareth 

Nazareth, where He was brought up, was a Galilean 
town which seems to have been of less than average 
moral repute. No special charge is made against it, 
but it was a man of more than ordinary intelligence who 
asked: 'Can any good thing come out of Nazareth?' 

Reputation of Nazareth 

It is not unlikely that its evil reputation was inti- 



22 THE CARPENTER AND HIS KINGDOM 

mately connected with questions of property. Naza- 
reth was a Roman province, a centre of population and 
a usurers' paradise. Taxation was a heavy burden. 
The land was fruitful and yielded abundantly, but the 
more abundant the production, the heavier the tax. 
The richer the people grew, the poorer they became. 
There was a head tax on both bond and free. Doors, 
windows, pillars, corn, wheat, oil, fruit, trees, animals 
— all, everything was taxed to the limit and beyond. 
There was an army of tax-gatherers. They let and 
sub-let, and farmed out the various sections of the 
country. The tax-gatherers were Roman knights and 
apostate Jews. They were the publicans, the capitalists 
of the Roman Empire. Modern ' cornering ' in corn and 
wheat, had its origin in the dawn of history, and in 
the cradle of the world. 'I will tear down my barns 
and build greater,' was a stock exchange expression of 
a Galilean speculator. 

The lords temporal must have lost mucn sleep in 
the effort to invent new schemes of taxation, and the 
lords spiritual in fruitless efforts to determine whether 
it was a violation of the law, to eat an egg laid on the 
Sabbath! The labourer was in the same category. He 
was part of a system out of which there was no escape, 
save through the gates of death. 



1 is 

The Poor 

Where the tax-gatherers, usurers, and exploiters left 
off, the temple and the synagogue began — with an intri- 
cate system of tithes and offerings. True, the poor 
could offer a pigeon if that was all that had been left 
them, but even in the sale of pigeons, the priests had 
cornered the market, and fixed the price about half a 
guinea each. Thus trodden beneath the heel of oppres- 
sion, the human worms turned. At first the turning 
was mild. They protested, then they petitioned, then 
when there was no hope of relief, they revolted. 



IN THE DAYS OF HIS YOUTH 23 

Revolutions are respectable only in success. Revo- 
lutionsists, when they succeed, are heroes and patriots. 
When they fail, they become criminals. It was a great 
Jewish teacher who said money was the root of all evil, 
but a careful study of Jewish history leads us to the 
belief that whatever of a criminal class there was in 
Galilee, was composed very largely of those from whom 
the root had been entirely extracted. 

The Economic Factor 

To Jesus as a boy and youth, these matters were 
things of common knowledge. The economic factor 
was one of his teachers in the school of life, and His 
own teaching teems with reference to it. The question : 
'What shall we eat and drink, and wherewithal shall 
we be clothed?' was fundamental. Before we can have 
moral life, we must have life. It was not the only fun- 
damental question. There was a spiritual revolt against 
a religion that pressed down as heavily on the soul as 
robbery and exploitation bore down on the body. 

Rabbinical punctiliousness had its origin in a patriotic 
and religious effort to stem the tide of foreign influence. 
The temple had been profaned. Augustus provided 
that sacrifices should be offered daily at his expense, 
to the most high God. It was a sop, of course, but 
there were those who looked upon it as a compliment. 

Strange Gods 

Despite all vigilance, heathen temples and heathen 
deities had invaded the land. Apollo, Jupiter, and 
Hercules were enshrined at Gaza, and shared the 
honours with Diana, Juno, and Venus. 

Ascalon added Mercury, Castor and Pollux, Minerva 
and Astarte. In Caesarea Philippi, Herod built a temple 
for the worship of Augustus. Heathenism had its 
temples in every important place in Palestine. Herod 
opened the gates, and the gods trooped in, in scores. 
Jehovah seemed to be subordinated, and His religion 



24 THE CARPENTER AND HIS KINGDOM 

seemed to be losing its force, even for the house ot Israel. 
Revolts over foreign taxation were followed by physical 
resistance to foreign religion. After each, there were 
massacres, in which thousands were put to death. When 
pestilence and famine came, they were looked upon as 
scourges of God, for the profanation of the temple, but 
the Roman Eagles still flew overhead, and the taxes 
were still collected. Thus the tide of human life ebbed I 
and flowed. 

I 

Origin of Pharisaism 

On the practical side, the organised expression was 
the Zelots, on the religious side, the Pharisees. For 
the history and influence of these sects we must look, | 
not to the New Testament, but to Jewish history. I 
The Evangelists give us vivid pictures of the extreme ! 
of these sects, as they come in contact with the Master,' 
but the fact that during His ministry He accepted ! 
hospitality from Pharisees is proof enough that He saw 
a side of the sect, not fully presented in the Gospels; 



Sects 

For over a hundred years B.C. the Pharisees had 
been a school within a school, a sect within a sect, in 
Judaism. They stood next to the Rabbis as trustees 
and defenders of the faith. There was a laxity in the 
observance of the law. They were the yeast stirrers 
among the delinquents. There was a pressure of foreign 
religious influence from without. They fought it. Zeal 
needs organisations. They organised. Within organi- 
sation, there were steps of development, degrees of 
sanctity. They organised groups of brotherhoods to 
cover the need. These groups were all inclusive. There 
was no social caste, it was open to the people. Whoever 
desired to observe laws, in the spirit of the fathers, was 
eligible and might take the vow. There was a period 



IN THE DAYS OF HIS YOUTH 25 

of probation and promotion according to progress. 
There was no jealousy, the movement had the sanction 
of the Rabbis and the co-operation of the people, the 
priestly families who felt that their hereditary privileges 
were in danger. The organised expression of the priestly 
families was the Sadducees. 

They were wealthy and had vested interests. They 
were not sticklers for the law, yet strangely enough, 
they were the high church party, and conservatives 
in matters relating to the temple, the priesthood, and 
official religion. 

Beliefs 

The Pharisees were the Liberals. They were for the 
temple also but they were for the synagogue, the school, 
and the teacher. They were propagandists for personal 
religion. There was one cardinal difference. The 
Sadducees believed that the soul died with the body. 
The Pharisees believed in immortality. The Sadducees 
were fatalistic. God had made man and handed over 
to him the reins of his own destiny. This done, God 
withdrew. Such a belief they found convenient. It 
enabled them to enjoy life as they found it, without the 
limitations that were so binding upon their compatriots. 
The Pharisees kept alive the hope of a coming Kingdom 
of Heaven ,but they also believed that it was to come 
about by the co-operation of man with Jehovah. 

Pharisaism 

They believed in repentance and love to one's neigh- 
bour, and this not for the Jews alone, but for the Gentile 
World. This comes nearer to the teaching of the Master, 
than the Pharisees are popularly supposed to have come, 
yet they were His bitterest opponents, and ultimately, 
it was with their co-operation that He was put to death. 

The second change in the life of the Pharisees, was 
more subtle than the Sadducees. It was a spiritual 



26 THE CARPENTER AND HIS KINGDOM 

conceit, and exaggerated egotism that rendered their 
feasts a farce and their rites and ceremonies a dumb : 
show. The change was gradual, but decay was sure. 
We are indebted, not to the records of Christianity for | 
a full description of Pharisaism, but to the Mishna and 
other writings of Jews themselves. In these writings 
no phase of the surrounding heathenism was so thor- 
oughly castigated as the final hypocrisy of the Pharisees. 



1f 17 
A Ponderous Code of Laws 

The last phase was a sort of ecclesiastical manicuring 
with the law. Pharisees and Rabbis spent their lives 
in the most trifling casuistry and inane puerilities, 
endless discussion, endless division of opinion as to what 
was clean and unclean in matters of food and furniture, 
work and workshops. There was a 'thus saith the 
Lord' for every act of life — for feasts and fasts, for 
tithes and offerings, for meats and drinks, for reading 
and conversation, for travelling, meeting, parting, 
buying, selling, cooking, killing, and washing of pots, 
cups, dishes, tables, and person. To rub elbows with 
a com m on person defiled a Pharisee. The ponderous ' 
code of laws which governed the Sabbath, has been | 
described by the Jews themselves as a 'mountain that 
hung by the hair.' The Pharisee or Rabbi who executed 
casuistry, was like to 'a well-plastered cistern full of 
the water of knowledge, out of which not a drop could 
escape.' 

If 18 

The Sabbath 

The essence of the law, relating to the Sabbath, was 
the prohibition against work. Business was totally 



IN THE DAYS OF HIS YOUTH 27 

suspended. Shops were closed and tools were laid aside. 
No fires were lighted. There are orthodox Jews who still 
adhere to this custom, but they arrange the fires on 
Friday, and pay a Christian to light them on Saturday. 

A tailor was forbidden to carry his needle about with 
him on Friday lest suddenly the Sabbath should overtake 
him, and he should be weighed down with the tool of 
his trade. False hair might be worn in the house, but 
not in the street. Water could not be taken to animals, 
but animals could be taken to water. Concessions 
were made to wooden-legged men and cripples. They 
might tie on their detachable appendages or hobble on 
crutches without having the exercise construed as work, 
but it was a distinct and unwarranted violation of the 
law to cross a stream on stilts. If a man had lumbago, 
he had to grin and bear it to avoid the labour of a hot 
fermentation or massage. Conservatives contended 
that broken bones should not be set on the Sabbath. 
Liberals said they should. 

A Sabbath day's journey was 2000 cubits — about 
three-fourths of a mile. Age did not need as much, 
youth needed more, and around this flaming sword 
love found a way, other elements found it too. 

Casuistry 

If they wanted to visit a friend on Saturday, they 
hid some food legal distances on Friday, and on the 
Sabbath, ate their way across the boundary line, for 
the law said, where there was food, there was the home 
also! There were certain acts that might be performed 
in the house on the Sabbath, and to do them elsewhere, 
the house could be indefinitely extended by means of 
strings. If a piece of glass had been swallowed acci- 
dentally, a doctor might be sent for, but if medicine was 
to be administered it was to be taken as food, and with 
pleasure ! 

The Sabbath was supposed to be a day of Joy! This 
idea was thoroughly emphasised, that the schools of 
Hillel and Shammai were divided on the question whether 



^28 THE CARPENTER AND HIS KINGDOM 

any one might visit the sick, and by coming in contact 
with pain, forfeit joy. These examples are sufficient 
to show that the burden of the law fell with a deadlier 
weight on the Sabbath, than on any other day. Its 
net of intricate laws had become an insufferable bore to 
the majority of the people. 



If 19 

Foreign Influences 

Whether the education of Jesus varied from the 
schooling of the youth of His city and time, we do not 
know. If it had, we would have probably have some 
record of it. All boys were taught the law and the 
prophets. They were taught by an accredited teacher, 
or their fathers or both. To say that Jesus, however, 
was unacquainted with Greek culture is a conjecture 
hardly warranted by facts. The language of Palestine 
was not immune to its influence, the mother tongue of 
Jesus was the Syrian dialect. Greek inscriptions were 
on the coins, and Greek temples and Grecian gods were 
in plenty. Damascus and Gaza were virtually Greek 
cities, and amongst the legions of Herod there were 
Thracian regiments. A youth of the intentions of 
Jesus could not possibly be oblivious to the changes 
that were taking place around Him. The Hellenising 
process was opposed by the Rabbis, but despite the 
bitterest opposition it persisted and spread. Those 
who taught their sons Greek science were catalogued with 
those who raised swine, but the anathema of the Mishna 
was powerless to exclude the influence. 

As He went with His parents to the temple feasts, 
He saw the strange mingling of nations of the streets 
of Jerusalem. He compared the various types of 
foreign nationalities with as much interest as He com- 
pared and contrasted various and conflicting mental 
attitudes of the sects of His own people. If He cast 



IN THE DAYS OF HIS YOUTH 29 

aside reserve to question the doctors, He would with more 
ease question these foreigners on the affairs of the great 
outside world. 



What He Learned on the Streets 

He must have felt as keenly as others of His race, 
the national reverses that made His nation a vassal 
of Rome! Everywhere He saw the symbols of their 
religion, symbols of their civilisation. In the years 
of national adversity, it was the prophets and poets 
who kept hope alive in the heart of Israel. In His day 
there were merely interpreters of prophets and inter- 
preters of poets. But there were also patriotic souls 
who made the magic words of the past their own: they 
revived the vivid imagery of the fathers, and gave 
body and voice to their most ardent hopes. The 
dominant hope was that which looked for a coming 
deliverer, who would free them from bondage. 



H 20 

The Messianic Hope 

At one time the coming was to be the son of David, 
and sit on the throne of his fathers. Later the con- 
ception changed. He was to be the messenger of 
Jehovah, appointed from all eternity to appear in the 
fullness of time, and redeem His people. In the apoca- 
lyptic literature of the Jews, we have a strangely extra- 
vagant image of the expected One. He was to be a 
king from heaven endowed with the attributes of Jehovah 
— yet a Son a Man, and dwelling in the midst of them. 
He was to be a great Prince who would found an earthly 
paradise — for Jews. He would free Israel by force of 
arms, and found a new and supreme dominion in which 
the chosen ones would live the life of angels, and reverse 
the relationship that Rome bore to them. His name 



3 o THE CARPENTER AND HIS KINGDOM 

was to be called Immanuel, the Prince of Peace, the 
Mighty Counsellor, the Word Wisdom, the Messiah. 

There seem to have been a time when leaders in 
Israel looked upon Cyrus as the realisation of the coming 
One. Then Zebrubbael seemed to them to embody the 
qualities that justified them in centring their hopes on 
Him. 

Before the day of Maccabees, the conception of the 
Messiah was that He should be a 'Son of David' and 
free His people. He was to be their Prince and reign 
in splendour. 

The Deliverer 

If the hope waned or the interest flagged, the leader 
announced that a single day's repentance, by the chosen 
people, would bring Him into their midst at once. There 
were some that said Elias must first come to make straight 
His path. He was to ascend the mountains in glory, 
and make them red with the blood of His foes. So great 
was to be the slaughter that the beasts could live for a 
year on the flesh of the dead, and on the carrion left, 
the birds of the air could live for seven. There was to 
be much and valuable booty, and Israel was to share 
the spoils. Sinai, Tabor, and Carmel were to merge 
their peaks, and on the summit was to be built the 
capital of the King Messiah. The houses thereof were 
to be three miles high, and the length of the city was as 
the distance a horse could gallop from dawn to noon. 
No more poverty, no more sickness. It was to be a 
population of prophets, with visions all fulfilled ! 

And yet, day by day the potter turned his wheel! 
the smith fired his forge, the bazaars opened for trade, 
the hewers of wood, the drawers of water, went as usual 
to the mountains and the wells. The tax-gatherers 
sat in receipt of customs, the money changers in their 
stalls, the house-wife at her wheel, and the Rabbi 
pondered over the intricacies of the law. 

High as the expectation was — permeated as the 
thought of the time was with the coming of the new 



IN THE DAYS OF HIS YOUTH 31 

regime, no one thought for a moment of giving up 
their material possessions as the early Christians did 
in their enthusiasm of a similar hope. It was a dream 
in which they found it easier to sacrifice preconceived 
notions than prepossessions. And yet, some of these 
same men must have been members of the first Christian 
church at Jerusalem. 

Their minds were coruscating in the clouds, but 
their feet were firmly planted in the marts of trade. 

The background of the thought of Jesus was of the 
same texture as the thought of the people of His day. 
A study of the literature which wielded such a powerful 
influence in the Jewish mind when He appeared gives 
abundant evidence of this. The Enoch Literature 
written during the last two centuries B.C. is the source 
of much that appears in the first three Gospels. In 
first Enoch we find a serious attempt to account for the 
presence of evil in human history. We find also, clearly 
outlined the future punishment of the wicked in the 
abyss of hell, and the tultimate reward of the righteous. 
The title 'Son of Man* is given special prominence. 
The coming of the Messiah is foretold almost in the 
exact words of Matthew 25-31, chap. v. In the Book 
of Jubilees, angelology and demonology are well developed. 
The Old Testament is silent on the question of immortal- 
ity. Not so the apocalyptic literature. References 
to it are not uniform, but the hope of life after death, 
whether of the good or the evil are a main underlying 
motive-power of these dream-vision writers, with whose 
writing Jesus was familiar as a young man. His use 
of them shows their influence. 

Thought Currents 

The thought of Rome, of Alexandria, and of Baby- 
lonia was familiar to Him. It filtered through, from 
its source, and was distilled on the streets of Jerusalem 
and Nazareth, by merchants, travellers, and soldiers. 
The story of their mighty buildings, their military power, 



32 THE CARPENTER AND HIS KINGDOM 

and their civilisations made no impression upon Him. 
He was more interested in Life. Men and women and 
children were books and buildings to Him when He 
emerged from the silent years of His preparation. A 
single reference seems to indicate that in His youth He 
followed the trade of a carpenter, but by no hint from 
Him do we know what He worked at. 



1f 21 



Jesus Leaves Nazareth 

When He came to the parting of the ways — the way 
of a worker, and the way of a teacher, which is another 
form of work, He made no reference to the change. 
Nor did the evangelists. Not a word about the final 
break with home and relatives. Whether Joseph was 
living or dead, we know not. Great gaps lie between 
one act and another — gaps which can only be bridged 
by the imagination. 

The silent years between twelve and thirty are fruitful 
fields for the imagination, and men in all ages have 
penetrated them, but with small results. Men have 
imagined Him in India, sitting at the feet of her great 
teachers. Others feel sure that He spent part of His 
young manhood with the Essenes. His teaching has 
often been compared with the teachings of both peoples. 
In the absence of records, we do not know, and mere 
conjectures serve no useful purpose. It seems fixed 
in the human mind, that He lived and worked, and died 
amongst His own people. The rejection of numerous 
myths and legends concerning His youth, indicate to 
us that as child, youth, and young man, He lived the 
normal life of His time. 



IN THE DAYS OF HIS YOUTH 33 

His Last Night at Home 

There must have been some heart-searching moments 
as He neared the close of His home life. His brothers 
and sisters may not have appreciated His mental and 
spiritual outlook, but that could not be true of His 
mother. What happened on the last day, at the last 
meal, must have remained in her chamber of imagery 
as something she could never forget. Let us imagine 
Him in the late afternoon of that memorable day going 
out alone to the foot hills of Tabor, to crown the silent 
years in a communion of solitude. 

'O Sabbath rest by Galilee! 
O calm of hills above, 
Where Jesus knelt to share with thee, 
The silence of Eternity, 
Interpreted by love.' 

As He stood there and watched the going down of 
the sun beyond Carmel, there must have passed through 
His mind a retrospect, and a prospect. Around Him 
on every side lay the ruins of Empires, religions, and 
civilisations. Within the scope of His vision, the 
Semitic race sprang into being and passed through all 
the vicissitudes of national life. Israel, the once powerful 
nation, was a vassal of Rome. The cities were in ruins, 
the people were scattered, but in the hearts of those 
who remained, there lived a wonderful hope. Beyond 
the reach of His vision lay the ruins of other Empires, 
founded on force. They came up in glory, they went 
down in defeat to decay and death. On that narrow 
strip of land His people had fenced in Jehovah. On 
the morrow He would begin to remove the fence, and 
inaugurate a new Kingdom, in which all national lines 
of demarcation would be ultimately swept away; a new 
Kingdom which would be held together not by legal 
codes, or dynastic prerogatives, but by the power of a 
disinterested love. 



CHAPTER III 

BEGINNINGS AT CAPERNAUM 

The Spiritual Capital of Christianity 

Seven cities contended for the birthplace of Homer. 
Two claim the honour of being the birthplace of the 
Son of Man. He loved Jerusalem and wept over her, 
but her citizens put Him to death as a malefactor. 
It was reserved for Capernaum to lay just claim to 
the highest of all honours — the honour of being the scene 
of the great friendship, the completion of the circle 
of twelve, and the birthplace of the good News of God. 
And Capernaum has utterly vanished from the know- 
ledge of men. Its very site is uncertain. It is as if it 
had never been. It was exalted up to heaven — it was 
dashed down to hell. But so also was Jerusalem. 
Bethlehem we know, Nazareth we know, Jerusalem we 
know, Capernaum we know not. 

It was known in the fourth century, then it dis- 
appeared. It was the scene of His mighty works, the 
centre of His activity, and the source of that stream 
that is still flowing to the ends of the earth. Jerusalem 
was the capital of the world to the Jews. They pre- 
served what they could of it. Capernaum was the 
spiritual capital of the Christian world, and was lost to 
mankind because what happened there was completely 
overshadowed by theories of His birth and theories 
of His death. It was His home during the whole of 
His ministry. Surely, to that place of all others, the 
yearning hearts of the disciples should have turned in 
the days when they were bereft of their leader! Its 
disappearance is another evidence that in the course of 

34 



BEGINNINGS AT CAPERNAUM 35 

what is called evangelical history emphasis has been 
too often placed upon trivial and utterly non-essential 
things, to the confusion of religion and the exclusion of 
things that were vitally important to mankind. 

The beginnings at Capernaum were of the most 
simple character. It was not the beginning of the 
church as we knew it. It was the beginning of the 
Kingdom of Heaven. He used the synagogue, but 
He built no buildings. There was no ritual, no cere- 
mony, no prescribed rules. The personnel of the new 
movement was objectionable. He Himself was sneer- 
ingly referred to as a 'carpenter.' There was hostility 
against the class of persons to whom He made the offer 
of entry into the Kingdom. They had no pedigree, 
no status. They lacked respectability. 



T 23 

His First Sermon: The ' Good News ' of God 

The earliest Gospel (Mark) gives us the earliest 
sermon. It was brief and explicit. 'The time is 
fulfilled, the kingdom of God is at hand, repent 
ye and believe the good news.' On that basis He 
selects His personal followers. The 'good news' was 
the coming of the Kingdom. All Israel was looking for 
it and expecting it. They were not agreed as to the 
method of its coming. There were various ideas. 
They were all based on the apocalyptic writings of 
the Fathers. The central idea was the Messiah. 
Was Jesus the Messiah? Some of the earliest friends 
believed He was and on that assumption brought 
others into the circle, but Jesus Himself called His 
disciples on the basis of the Kingdom. His first 
sermon is not unlike the message of the Baptist. It 
is less harsh and more positive. He did not under- 
estimate the value of the religion of Israel: 'They 
that are whole need not a physician,' may be 
understood as a recognition of its value and an indica- 



36 THE CARPENTER AND HIS KINGDOM 

tion that even following Him was not an absolute essen- 
tial. Whence then the opposition? In Capernaum it 
was a question of method. Toward the end, in Jerusa- 
lem, it was a question of personality. To exalt conduct 
above creed, to ignore authority, to prefer working men 
to priests, unlearned to learned, poor to rich, and truth 
to tradition, made Him at once an object of suspicion. 
While in Galilee He was outside the jurisdiction of the 
Sanhedrin which is referred to as 'the Council.' This 
body of seventy-two men was the governing power in 
Israel. It was a sacerdotal aristocracy usually composed 
of Sadducees, until Herod espoused the cause of the 
Pharisees and increased their representation. It was 
presided over by the High Priest, and held its meetings 
in the temple. It was the court of last appeal in matters 
relating to the Mosaic ritual and the conservator of 
the interests of whatever nobility was left. Every- 
thing Roman was hated in Jerusalem, but when the 
official Jews wanted to get a Jew who was beyond their 
reach they usually used the arm of the Roman procurator 
to get him. 



11 24 
Opposition of the Elders: Gamaliel 

We are not to suppose that these 'Elders' of Israel 
were naturally cruel or vindictive or particularly bent 
on persecution. There were some level-headed and 
kind-hearted men amongst them. When the disciples 
were cited before the Council, Gamaliel, one of the 
leading members, stood up and defended them: 'If 
this Council or this work be of men,' he said, 'it will 
come to naught. If it be of God ye cannot overthrow 
it.' Of course there were not many Gamaliels, but 
there were probably as many as could be found in 
a Christian Sanhedrin of modern times. These men 
were concerned in order, tradition; in minute details 



BEGINNINGS AT CAPERNAUM 37 

of form and usage. To them apparently the work of 
God was a finished product. They imagined that if 
Jehovah had anything to say to the world, He would 
say it to them first. They were jealous of their power. 
Most of us are, if we have any. They probably possessed 
as much equilibrium as a House of Bishops would if 
they were confronted with the problem of a God-filled 
man with a bunch of dockers behind him, who ques- 
tioned their authority, and threatened their power. 



11 25 
The Kingdom of Friends 



In Capernaum, originated the religion of the open 
air, and of the open hand, and of the loving heart. 
The roadside became a rival of the temple, as a place 
in which either to preach or worship. It was the home 
of a gigantic dream of a Kingdom of Love, and of a 
disinterested enthusiasm for God and brotherhood. 
There the world's mind was turned to a religion of the 
heart that conceived God as a father and all the sons of 
men as his children. In the new Kingdom proclaimed by 
the Master, the humble, and the lowly, and the poor, 
and the nondescript, all had a place, a destiny, and a 
career. Its priesthood was to be composed of a pure 
in heart. Stone and brick and wood were no longer 
sacred, except as they were used in the service of man. 

The New Priesthood 

Aristocracy of blood and lineage were done away 
with, and a new aristocracy introduced. The new form 
was spiritual, and a fisherman or a tax-gatherer was as 
eligible as the bluest blood in the world. All caste 
was abolished, all social lines of demarcation were 
swept away. Breadth of phlacteries and posture of 



38 THE CARPENTER AND HIS KINGDOM 

body mattered little. There was no altar, no sacrifices 
of lambs or burnt offerings or incense. The new temple 
was God's great out-of-doors, the roof was the clear blue 
sky, the new gold was the gold of the glorious sunsets 
on the quiet lake. The new sacrifices were humility, 
charity, forgiveness, long-suffering, abnegation, and self- 
denial, all permeated with a love, that sought another's 
good and not its own. The infinite charm of it all is 
still the wonder of the world. 

Governments are founded on self-interest. Patriot- 
ism is a virtue, but the vision of the Kingdom of Heaven 
showed the world a better way. Man is more than 
self-interest, more than patriotism. He has a place in a 
world scheme, and that place can only be filled by 
righteousness that satisfies the soul. The dream of 
Capernaum was the dream of the world religion — a new 
Kingdom, the driving force of which was love. 

ir 26 

Unity in Diversity 

The twelve are a picture of the Kingdom. Diverse 
in temperament, diverse in status, intellect. Every 
one an individual with his own personal characteristics, 
but in diversity there is the unity of purpose. They 
are imbued by the same spirit. 

The Power of Love 

They are as yet unprepared for the larger mission, 
but they are apt pupils, and good ground for seed. 
Seeds are ideas — the ideas of the Kingdom. The 
closer they live to Him, the better the growth. They 
lie down to sleep on the same floor, they sit around 
the same table at meals, they accompany Him to the 
solitudes, for communion and prayer. As they watch 
him they learn that love linked to will is manifested 
in power — power to heal, to soothe, to encourage, to 



BEGINNINGS AT CAPERNAUM 39 

comfort, to interpret the father. He was the door into 
these untutored souls. 

Before they received the great charter, before they 
could reproduce the impressions received, they had 
much to learn and little time in which to learn it. They 
did not learn it by mere word of mouth instruction. 
They were in close contact with a divine personality. 
Sensibility is a subtle quality that almost defies defini- 
tion. In general it is the power to receive impressions. 
Jesus possessed it in an extraordinary degree. The 
light thrown on this phase of His character is dim, but 
sufficient to reveal it. His sensibility to human feeling 
was abundantly demonstrated in His warm sympathy 
with all classes of people, in their needs, in their homes, 
or on the roadside. Even the Pharisees were not beyond 
its limit, for He went to their homes and ate with them. 
He was sensitive to the charms of nature. Nothing 
escaped His notice, nothing was too insignificant to 
use as an illustration — the sparrow, the lily, the grass 
of the field. Sensibility to nature does not alone con- 
stitute great character, lacking other qualities it may be 
maudlin 



As Clay in the Hands of the Potter 

But sensibility to the feeling of others, and to nature, 
and to the presence of God are constituent elements of a 
character that is not only great but beautiful. The 
imminence of God was as natural to Him as the omni- 
presence of Nature. Sensibility in Him was no mere 
passive emotion. It was translated into action. The 
twelve were as soft clay in the hands of a potter. They 
were individuals sitting at the feet of a personality. 
How subtle the graduations of light through which the 
individual gropes toward personality. They were in 
an atmosphere for which we have no vocabulary. We 
know the cause, and we see the effect, but the transfor- 
mation is as mysterious as the birth of a butterfly or 
the colour of a flower. 



4 o THE CARPENTER AND HIS KINGDOM 

11 27 
They grew in His Likeness 

Gradually and perhaps unconsciously they found 
themselves seeing as He saw, hearing as He heard, 
feeling as He felt. They grew in His likeness. They 
were not copies. They were themselves plus His spirit. 
By discovering Him they had discovered themselves. 
They did not measure life by a book — they measured 
Him, they measured themselves. They had no mystical 
vocabulary, no scholastic method of reasoning. He had 
no such thing Himself and He warned them against the 
danger of laborious preparation of speeches. The idea 
was the thing, and when they had that it would always 
sufficiently clothe itself in words. Thus the Kingdom 
began, thus it grew and spread from Capernaum, with- 
out bell or book or building or priests or money. 

These things came later. They came when the spiri- 
tual simplicity of Capernaum was lost in the sacerdotal- 
ism of Jerusalem. In the course of time the Christians 
appropriated the Ecclesiastical machinery of Judaism — 
bag and baggage. It may be seen in full swing to-day 
in any city in Christendom — priesthood, signs, symbols, 
phlacteries and all. The labels are changed, but the 
forms are the same. How strange that the stones of 
Ceremonialism for which He had no use should become 
the chief corner-stones in spiritual structures erected in 
His name! 

The only Barrier 

Stranger still is it that His followers should persecute 
and kill each other over forms and theories, when all 
the time they were all agreed upon the essential truth. 
He taught, and the simple life He lived. Despite 
church wars, however, the Kingdom goes on, and the 



BEGINNINGS AT CAPERNAUM 41 

only barrier to the winning of the world by the King- 
dom of God is the impedimenta placed in the way by 
His friends. 



CHAPTER IV 

VOICES HE HEARD IN THE WOODS 

11 28 

The Spiritual Struggles in the Wilderness 

It was the voice of John the Baptist that called Jesus 
out of obscurity, to the banks of the Jordan. It was 
the voice of God that called Him into the wooded 
slopes of a mountain side immediately afterwards. One 
way had been prepared. Another was in preparation. 
John had prepared the first. He, Himself, aolne with 
the Father, would prepare the second. 

We can imagine Him sitting on a low boulder in the 
solitude of the woods as the shadows deepen, beyond the 
sound of human voices, far removed from the abode of 
man. He is a denizen of the woods, where all nature 
is vocal, yet mute. The bark of a wolf reverberates over 
the distant valley, a fox in search of food breaks through 
the decayed branches of the underbrush. The birds 
twitter in the trees as they settle down for the night. 
The soughing of the wind through the foliage intensifies 
the stillness. He is alone — alone in the silence, wjth 
the Father. 

As He reviews the events of the immediate past, 
vivid scenes flit one after another through His mind. 
He sees the multitude. He sees John, and hears again 
the thunder-tones that shake the souls of men. He 
hears the question of the newly awakened. He knows 
their mind. He is one of them. Their hopes and fears 
are part of His heritage. 

42 



VOICES HE HEARD IN THE WOODS 43 

Hunger 

He had been fasting. The object of fasting is to make 
bodily interests and desires subserve the desires and 
interests of the spirit. His long fast has attuned His 
spirit, rendered it sensitive to the highest calls, but it 
has reduced his physical strength. The desire for food 
becomes keen. The wild beasts around Him find food 
with claw and fang, the birds of the air by instinct find 
theirs. All that lives in forest, field, and stream, in 
trees and grass and ground, follow the law of their nature 
in supplying bodily needs. Man's destiny is different. 
They live to eat. He eats to live. The wider the gulf 
between the nature of man and the nature of the animal, 
the greater the difference in the methods of supplying 
food to sustain the body. 

The body is the temple of the spirit. The desire to 
sustain it is fundamental. How the desire is to be 
satisfied is the source of conflict between man and man 
and between man's body and man's spirit. 

The Tempter 

Before Jesus had entered upon His ministry — before 
He had called a disciple, He experienced this conflict. 
As He sits there He hears voices. The voice of the 
lower self calls. It has many names, but by whatever 
name it is called, it is the same thing. It is the power 
of evil. The Jews clothed it with flesh, and personified 
it. They called it Satan, the devil, the tempter. In 
succeeding ages the call of the lower self, that power in 
man that makes for unrighteousness was made a dogma. 
Men have quarrelled over its name, and that quarrel 
itself, apart from the thing discussed, has become a 
source of evil. 

In His physical weakness, the voice of the tempter 
called upon Him to satisfy His hunger by turning the 
stones around His feet into bread ! The call was definite. 
Long afterward Jesus told His friends about it, and He 
left no doubt in their minds as to its meaning. He was 



44 THE CARPENTER AND HIS KINGDOM 

possessed of spiritual power. He was asked to use it 
in a way that others could not use it. He was tempted 
to use it for personal and fleshly needs: — 

'If Thou be the Son of God, command that these 
stones be made bread.' 

If there was no desire in the mind of the Master 
to comply with the request, there could have been 
no temptation. The presence of such a desire con- 
stituted the conflict. If there was no tendency to obey 
the call of the lower self there could be no virtue in 
obeying the higher call. The fact of evil was as real 
to Jesus as to us. He did not explain that which was 
self-evident, but He did not raise personified evil to 
the dignity of a competition with God. The theologians 
did that. 

If 29 
Good and Evil 

Evil is incidental. Good is fundamental. There 
was a time when evil was not. There will come a 
time when it will disappear. Meantime it was with 
Him — attacking Him. It is with us — attacking us. 
His answer to the tempter is a keynote to His teaching : — 
'Man shall not live by bread alone, but by 

every word that proceedeth out of the mouth 

of God.' 

The Food of the Soul 

That is the voice of the higher call. It is the counter 
challenge of the voice of God. In substance it affirms 
a fundamental truth! Bread is essential, but it is not 
the only essential! Bread is the food of the body. 
Truth is the food of the spirit. Both come from the 
storehouse of a bountiful providence, but they encounter 
many vicissitudes on their way to their destinations. 
There is a way that seemeth right unto the needs of the 
body, but the end thereof is the destruction of the spirit. 



VOICES HE HEARD IN THE WOODS 45 

Jesus was tempted to play the magician, but the moral 
order of the universe is not founded on magic ! 

The Eternal Struggle 

Since men caught fish with a crooked pin, and ploughed 
the earth with a bent stick, the race has struggled and 
worked for bread. Bread is the generic term for the 
essentials of life. The struggle for it has been the mother 
of inventions, sciences, and revolutions. For it men have 
sold their birthrights, their ideals, and their souls. The 
market is still open, and barter and exchange is still 
going on — a morsel of bread for a slice of the soul. 

The Desires of the Spirit 

In obeying the higher call He did not minimise the 
importances of bread. He put the emphasis where it 
belonged. The 'words that proceed out of the mouth 
of God ' are truth. The body has its needs and activities. 
They are physical. The spirit has its needs and activi- 
ties. They are the desire for truth, for goodness, and 
for beauty, and these are the things that distinguish 
man from the animal. There is a truth for the body, 
and there is a truth for the spirit. The obedience of 
Jesus to the higher call does not mean that the food of 
the body is secular, and the food of the spirit sacred. 
His temptation is a red flag of warning to humanity, 
that the evil consists in the means. He might have 
proved himself the Son of God, by converting stones 
into bread, but He would have been infinitely less, 
1 the bread of Life ' for us ! It would have been an exhi- 
bition of fear — not of faith. 

The humanity which found its most perfect fulfilment 
in the Master was not given to Him to use as a magic 
wand over the essentials of life. It was not an embroid- 
ered garment thrown over His shoulders to protect Him 
from that which was common to all humanity. It was 
given him to lead man Godward, and God manward, 



46 THE CARPENTER AND HIS KINGDOM 

and a monopoly of bread, or of the means for procuring 
it, is the frustration of both. 

Bread is a blessing and spiritual in its nature. When 
procured by foul means, it becomes a minister of evil, 
and a curse. 

Our Weakest Point 

At no point in human existence is the spiritual nature 
so severely tested as it is in our relation to the question 
of bread. The fear of hunger becomes the arch tempter. 
He strikes at our weakest point. He does not ask that 
stones be turned into bread. He points to a multitude 
of empty ' hands ' and challenges the masters of materials 
to convert them into profit — and blessed is the man who 
can paraphrase the reply of Jesus and say: man shall 
not live by profit alone. 

He earned bread by the labour of His Hands 

It is difficult for us to understand the oriental methods 
of teaching truth. They appear to be so {fantastic 
and far fetched. Our western methods are more blunt 
and matter-of-fact. But, stripped of form and frill, 
the heart of truth is the same in all hands. However 
strange the form of the temptation may appear to us, 
the inner fact revealed the attitude of Jesus to the prob- 
lem of bread, identified Him for all time with our common 
humanity. 

Bread is a common essential. There must be a 
common access to it. The gateway must be free. 

Labour the Pathway to Bread 

Until he was thirty years of age, Jesus proved His 
right to bread by the labour of His hands. When He 
laid down the tools of His trade and began His ministry 
no one doubted His right to bread, any more than we 
doubt the right of a teacher in our public schools. What 



VOICES HE HEARD IN THE WOODS 47 

He was tempted to do was to open a private passage to 
bread through which He alone could enter. He refused 
for a double reason: first, because we could not follow 
Him there, and second, because food for the spirit is as 
necessary as food for the body, and one of the words of 
eternal truth is that man shall obtain bread by labour! 
It is as true in the Kingdom of bread as it is in the 
Kingdom of spirit, that he that entereth by any other 
door, 'the same is a thief and a robber.' 

The second phase of the temptation is a twofold 
suggestion to misuse power. One suggestion was to 
cast Himself headlong from the pinnacles of the temple 
and the other to fall down and worship the tempter. 
We lose the force of the revelation if we imagine a super- 
human being with diabolical mind, standing over the weak 
form of the Master. The conflict is spiritual, and spiri- 
tual forces are contending for the mastery. Let us con- 
tinue to imagine Him sitting there in the solitude, while 
the conflict rages in His soul. One temptation assailed 
Him on a present need. He strikes next at the founda- 
tion of His future. 



The Two Messiahs 

What He is asked to do, would not be inconsistent 
with the nature of such a Messiah as the Jews were 
looking and waiting for. It is true there were no definite 
limits attached to the powers of the expected one, but 
the sacred writings had foretold a wonder worker who 
was to do marvellous things. He was to ascend the 
throne of David, and rule His people. He was to reverse 
the political situation and take swift revenge upon the 
foreign invaders. Sinai, Carmel, and Tabor were to 
merge their peaks and on the summit was to be built 
the city of the Messiah-King. The mountains were to 
be made red with the blood of His enemies. So great 
was to be the slaughter that the beasts could live for a 
year on the flesh of the slain, and, on the carrion that 
remained, the fowls of the air could subsist for seven. 



48 THE CARPENTER AND HIS KINGDOM 

The pomp and magnificence was to excel anything the 
world had ever seen. When the tempter offered Him 
the Kingdoms of the earth he was merely focusing 
the expectations of the Jewish people. 

The voice of the tempter called Him to fulfil the 
expectation of His people. It was pointed out to Him 
that He combined in His personality the power of 
Moses, of Elijah, and Judas Maccabasus. They had 
done wonderful things. He could do still more wonder- 
ful things, if He would. His people would follow Him 
to death. Jehovah was His God and would not fail 
Him. There was truth in these suggestions. That 
was what made them dangerous. He had power. He 
was asked to test it by a spectacular venture. There 
was power and glory in temporal things. He was asked 
to acknowledge and serve this power and add to His 
prestige and exalt the Jewish state. 

The Two Paths 

Did He recognise any force in the suggestions? Un- 
doubtedly He did. He saw in them the good which is 
the enemy of the best. Two pathways opened before 
Him. One led to a Kingdom of temporal power. The 
other led to the spiritual Kingdom of God. He could 
see the end of one. It was of a temporary character. 
The other was endless. In the one His predecessors 
had become immortal in the hearts of Israel. In the 
other He had no predecessors. He would walk alone. 
In one path He would serve a nation, a small nation. 
In the other He would serve the human race. In one 
path He saw glory of a kind, and power. On the other, 
difficulty, hardship, misunderstanding, rejection, and 
death. He saw power also, not the power to remove 
the Roman yoke, or re-establish the throne of David, or 
the power of the sword in slaughtering men, but the 
greater power to change men's hearts from hate to har- 
mony — from things temporal to things eternal. 



VOICES HE HEARD IN THE WOODS 49 

If 30 
Jesus not an Economist 

Jesus had no cut and dried system of political economy 
or ethics, but some of His ideas contain such seeds. 
These are the phases of life, where we think in a circle. 
Jesus in the temptation gives us trajectory. There 
are millions of people who contend that in the temptation 
Jesus was confronted with a real flesh and blood competi- 
tor of God, but they do not seem to see that a monopoly 
of bread or misuse of power is a denial of the Son of Man. 

He was unwilling to temporise with the power of evil. 
He could not take it into partnership. The power He 
possessed must be used for beneficent purpose only. 
By resisting evil in His weakness He was putting Himself 
on a level with the life around Him and furnishing an 
eternal example to the sons of men. 

The struggle reached its climax at the end of His 
fast. The story could only be told by Himself. There 
was no eyewitness, as in the latter struggle in Gethsem- 
ane. Both were real. The wilderness was a smelter 
in which the gold of His spirit was thoroughly tried. 

Calm after Storm 

When it was over He regained His equilibrium — He 
was at peace with the world and the Father. The 
tempter would return, later, but in another form. Not 
to tempt, but with the power of an Empire to strike 
Him down. Meantime the vision is clear, the pro- 
gramme is outlined and the fire burns on the altar 
of His heart. Blessed were the boulders on which He 
sat. Blessed were trees and birds who heard Him sigh. 
He loved them all, as He loved the world of human beings. 
He will return to them for rest and quietness, but He 
leaves them now to inaugurate a Kingdom of Friends. 



5 o THE CARPENTER AND HIS KINGDOM 

' Into the woods my Master went, 
Clean forspent, forspent, 
Into the woods my Master came, 
Forspent with love and shame. 
But the olives were not blind to Him. 
The little gray leaves were kind to Him, 
The thorn tree had a mind to Him, 
When into the woods He came. 

Out of the woods my Master went, 

And He was well content. 

Out of the woods, my Master came, 

Content with death and shame. 

When death and shame would woo Him last, 

From under the tree they drew Him last ; 

'Twas on a tree they slew Him last 

When out of the woods He came.' 



CHAPTER V 

THE CIRCLE OF INTIMATE FRIENDS 

Simon and Andrew Called 

Without literature, without money, without organisa- 
tion, without either social or political standing, Jesus 
began His ministry in Galilee. He wrote nothing, He 
organised nothing, He ignored organised religion, 
He ignored the educated men of His day, He used the 
synagogue as a convenience. He preferred the open air. 

Two fishermen, Simon and Andrew his brother are 
mending their nets, in their boat, by the shore of the 
Sea of Galilee. Jesus, passing by, hails them. They 
have heard John the Baptist. They knew Jesus. 
They had been spiritually quickened. Jesus invites 
them to follow Him, and they leave their boat and nets 
and accompany Him. There is no ceremony, they are 
not asked what they believe, they subscribe no creed. 
We are not informed whether they were baptized or not. 

One thing only they new, and that they knew per- 
fectly — they knew Him. The men who wrote of 
these beginnings wrote a generation after the death 
of Jesus. They describe the events differently. Some 
are almost grotesque in their brevity, others have 
added a literary atmosphere, but they are all brief, 
simple, pastoral. 'I will make you to become fishers 
of men,' Jesus tells them. They know what He 
means. They were accustomed to such figures of speech. 
They used them every day in the common affairs of 
life. To catch men was to give them new ideas, new 
ideals, out of which naturally grew a new outlook upon 
life, a new attitude toward God. 

51 



52 THE CARPENTER AND HIS KINGDOM 

James and John 

A little farther along the beach, in their boat, sat 
Zebedee and his two sons, James and John. They were 
related to 'Simon and Andrew. Jesus repeats the 
simple invitation. They, too, have heard the Baptist. 
They are acquainted with the contents of His message. I 
They know Jesus. The two sons leave their father and 
join the small circle of three. They, too, are to become 
fishers of men, but as yet they are unacquainted with the 
vocabulary of the vocation. 

When the five sat down to eat their first meal together, 
they looked into each other's faces, and realised that 
something had happened. What was it? It was a circle 
of friendship. They were His friends — His intimate 
friends. 

They must have wondered why He called them. 
In the cities around were hundreds of men trained for 
the priesthood, educated for the temple service, versed 
in the law. There was a special caste of religious good- 
ness, there were men distinguished in leadership. Why 
had He not selected His intimate friends from these? 
He knew. They would learn later. 

Working Men 

They were rough men, with calloused hands, muscular 
bodies, and bronzed faces. They were labourers with 
more brawn than brain. They knew nothing of theologi- 
cal discussions of the day. A group of religious experts 
could sit all day and enjoy a debate over whether it 
was a violation of the law to eat an egg on the Sabbath. 
The interests of these men did not lie in that direction. 
They could discuss the merits of a hard day's work, 
they knew all about fish and waterfowl, they knew the 
signs and portents of the heavens. They loved the lake 
and the surrounding hills. 

They were children of nature and loved their mother 
in all her moods. In storm and sunshine, when the 
sea was like a piece of glass, and when the wind howled 



THE CIRCLE OF INTIMATE FRIENDS 53 

and whipped the waters into a fury, they toiled for their 
bread. 

Lovers of Nature 

They arose at dawn and carried home their catch 
when the sun burnished in beautiful colours the western 
sky. They were more familiar with the sound of the 
woodman's axe than they were with the bleating of the 
sacrificial lamb. They knew the shepherds of the 
plains, the tillers of the soil, and the sowers and the 
reapers whose strong arms provided the people with 
food. They lived the common life and were of the 
texture of its woof and warp. 

To Philip of Bethsaida Jesus gave the same invitation 
that He had given the others. The account of His 
calling is brief. His name and his town is given. He 
was an acquaintance of Andrew and a fellow townsman. 

The more these men walked and talked with the 
Master the better they became acquainted with His 
mind and methods. It begins to dawn on them what 
He is aiming at. In the sacred intimacy they grow bold, 
and exert themselves to increase the small circle of friends. 

A Sceptic Called 

Philip had not been in the circle very long before 
he caught the spirit of the group and increased it by 
the addition of Nathaniel. The new friend is of a 
sceptical turn of mind. 'Can any good come out of 
Nazareth?' he asks, to which Philip answered, 'Come 
and see!' The genial greeting of the Master, His keen, 
penetrating insight into the nature of the new-comer 
disarms criticism and draws from him an expression of 
faith. Nathaniel was described by the Master to the 
friends as 'an Israelite in whom there was no guile.' 
The records, however, would indicate that he lacked 
the force that would distinguish him from that portion 
of the group that is clothed in obscurity. 



54 THE CARPENTER AND HIS KINGDOM 

A Publican 

The seventh friend came from a despised class — 
he was a publican. As the Master and His friends 
passed a toll booth near Capernaum, they saw Levi 
sitting at a table collecting taxes for Herod. That he 
was not unprepared for the call is evident by the readiness 
with which he accepted it. 

It was the Master who spoke. Levi must have been 
startled at His voice, and surprised at finding himself 
recognised as a man amongst men. There had been 
some breaking up of the fallow ground of his mind. 
He had heard John and Jesus also. He had undoubtedly 
shown a sympathetic interest in the new spiritual move- 
ment. When the Master invited him, he arose at once 
and joined the friends. 

It is the Greek Evangelist who adds a significant 
touch to the story of the publican's call: 'he left all — 
and followed Him,' says Luke. This was the Master's 
first step athwart the lines of class consciousness. Men 
who worked with their hands were Am-ha-aritz — the 
people of the ground. They were useful, of course, 
but their respectability was another question. The 
publicans were not even useful — they were the lowest of 
the low. 

That night seven friends sat around the Master in 
His abode and listened to the unfolding of His mind. 
These group conferences in the evenings as they reclined 
at meals or sat under the shade of a tree were important. 
They were the schools in which the disciples were taught 
the art of the new life. They learned more there in an 
hour than they could from a day's preaching. Their 
reserve could be dispensed with, and they could talk 
heart to heart. 

1 32 
The Publican's Farewell Reception 
Levi was so full of gratitude that he suggested a 



THE CIRCLE OF INTIMATE FRIENDS 55 

bi-valve through which he could release some of his 
pent-up emotions. He thought a feast might serve 
the purpose. He would invite his friends, old and 
new, and together they would celebrate his entry into 
the new life. Jesus consented, and the thing was 
arranged. 

Levi's reception is the only social function of which 
we have any record amongst the disciples. Perhaps 
he was the only disciple able to give one. The Master 
and His friends were there. Levi was the host. His 
other guests were old time companions of the open road- 
publicans, sinners, and nondescripts, about whose moral 
standing there was doubt in the minds of the church 
people of that day. 

In the observance of the minute details of the law, 
the sinners present had probably left much to be desired. 
The host had invited them out of the kindness of his heart- 
They were his equals — whether they had washed their 
hands or not. He had pent-up joy. He wanted some of 
it to overflow into the hearts of his old friends. There 
was no string attached to it, no axe to grind, no reciprocal 
relation. It is not even suggested that he had any 
idea that they would follow his example. 

In the midst of the feast, the religious censor arrived. 
They tiptoed around to find out if everything was 
kosher. Of course it wasn't. Levi was celebrating his 
escape from the latter bondage! Their point of attack 
is interesting. They flung a sneer at the Master and 
His friends saying : — 

'Why do ye eat with publicans and sinners?' 

Jesus Feasts with Sinners 

They probably imagined there was no answer. No 
such feast had ever been heard of in Capernaum or else- 
where. It was without precedent, it was in utter dis- 
regard of tradition; they had not been invited to dis- 
cuss it, or approve of it, or even to sit down and share 
it. 



56 THE CARPENTER AND HIS KINGDOM 

His answer went to the heart of the question. 
'They that are whole need not a physician,' Jesus 
said, and Levi's inauguration ended in peace. 

There is no record of the calling of the other five. 
In the roster their names appear in the following order: 
Thomas, James the son of Alpheus, Simon the Zelot, 
Judas the brother of James, and Judas Iscariot. 

The Lesser Lights 

Of these only one seems to have possessed force-^ 
and that in the wrong direction. The others flit across 
the stage of a great drama as foils for the leading actors. 
Their appearances are momentary and comparatively 
unimportant. 

Thomas emerges from oblivion for a moment after 
the crucifixion. Tradition tells us that James the son 
of Alpheus was a brother of Levi, and followed a similar 
occupation. He was called James the Little (not the 
less) to distinguish him from the son of Zebedee and 
brother of John. Simon the Zelot had been a Sinn 
Feiner of Jerusalem. It was his party that brought 
down the final crash on the Jews as a nation, and scat- 
tered them to the ends of the earth. Judas, the son of 
James, is known also by the name of Lebbasus and Thad- 
daeus. Outside of the roster, his name appears but once. 
He asked a question and by it revealed the fact that 
privileged as he had been with personal and intimate 
contact with the Master, he hadn't the faintest idea as 
to what Jesus was driving at. 

Both men named Judas expected Jesus to make a 
demonstration of power — not the power of the Kingdom 
of Heaven, but of power that would confound His 
enemies. One of them contented himself with asking a 
question about it. The other made an attempt to 
precipitate the crisis. Iscariot was the only one who 
was not a Galilean. 

Such was the material that Jesus gathered around 
Him in an intimate circle of friends. Half of them 
were unequal to the trust. He knew they were, but 



THE CIRCLE OF INTIMATE FRIENDS 57 

He took them into His confidence and loved them to 
the end. He must have borne much as they became 
familiar, and their personal characteristics began to 
appear, yet as a family of brothers they lived, sharing 
each others joys and sorrows. They were one in spirit, 
the strong neutralising the weak, and the impulsive 
the phlegmatic. 



ir 33 

Their Strength and their Weakness 

The proportion of strong men in the circle of the 
twelve seems small when looked at through the eyes 
of the Evangelists. It is well to keep in mind, however, 
that what we learn from them is only an infinitesimal 
part of such an intimate association. There were 
evidently misunderstanding amongst them. 

They were small to what they might have been, if all 
had been John's or Peter's. One Peter was quite an 
abundance in such a small group. The mediocre men 
had their places to fill. We can only guess at what 
they actually did for the Evangelists are giving us, not 
biographies, but a biography. 

The confidence reposed in all these men, and equally 
in all, was not a development. It was spontaneous 
and whole-hearted, from the moment He called them 
out of the crowd into His immediate and personal 
friendship; He expresses this confidence in strong 
language. In addition to that He changed some of 
their names. There comes over us a sense of play- 
fulness when we read the change in Simon's name. 
We cannot avoid the feeling that Jesus is smiling as 
He looks into the face of the rough fisherman and calls 
him a Rock! There were times when he was more 
loose sand than rock, but the picture of an immovable 
boulder was an end at which he was to aim and ulti- 
mately attain ! John and James became sons of Thunder, 
Levi became Matthew, Judas, the son of James became 



58 THE CARPENTER AND HIS KINGDOM 

Lebbasus — denoting enthusiasm and warmth of heart, 
and Nathaniel became Bartholomew. 

Mark, in the third chapter of his Gospel, describes 
what we may understand as the selection of the men 
whose calling is not specifically otherwise mentioned. 
Jesus calling around Him a group, takes them apart 
to a mountain and completes the number — twelve. 
Having selected the full complement, He takes them 
into a house. While the Master and His twelve friends 
are there a crowd gathers outside. A meal has been 
prepared, and the disciples arrange themselves to 
partake of it, but the crowd multiplies, and becomes 
curious, critical, and boisterous, so much so indeed, 
that it was impossible to eat. 

The completion of the twelve and the first assembly 
must have had a dynamic effect, not only on the crowds 
who followed, but on the outside friends and relatives of 
Jesus. The scribes who crowded around Him mitigated 
the theory of madness by the theory of demoniacal 
possession. 'He hath Beelzebub,' they said, 'and the 
Prince of devils He casteth out devils ! ' 

His Relatives believed Him Mad 

Why did His friends and relatives consider Him 
mad? Because by all prevailing canons of judgment 
He was doing a mad thing. The selection of fishermen, 
publicans, and nondescripts as leaders in a religious 
movement was madness. Eating with harlots and 
thieves and other sinners was madness. To think 
contrary to the Sanhedrin was madness. To suppose 
that Jehovah would act through any but the orthodox 
channels was madness. The reputation of His family 
was at stake. By saving Him they could save them- 
selves. 

11 34 

If He came Again 

Sincere souls in all ages have expected Him to reappear 



THE CIRCLE OF INTIMATE FRIENDS 59 

in the clouds. The Jews expected Him to come in that 
manner. Let us suppose for a moment that He comes — 
not as He is expected, but as He came before, and that 
in the north country somewhere. He is born and brought 
up. In the fullness of time He begins to select His 
disciples. Down by the beach at Yarmouth He calls 
two such fishermen as Ham and Dan'l Peggotty. Then 
around Newcastle He lays His hand on a miner as He 
emerges from the pit. Then He comes to London and 
gets hold of a respectable usurer, who has been fleecing 
the poor. A Sinn Feiner is attracted and joins the 
group. The usurer persuades the Master and the 
others to celebrate, so He collects some old time asso- 
ciates, whose antecedents are as shady as his own, and 
whose occupations are not to be found in the post office 
guide. A demi-monde, a cab-driver, a sandwich man, 
and a politician. Would the coterie fare better than a 
similar one did in Capernaum? Could the ordinary 
person who values reputation be dragged there with a 
halter? Can any one imagine a bishop falling over 
himself to give a gathering like that the glad hand? 
A transfer of scene from Capernaum to London gives 
some perspective. When we know what London would 
do we become less critical of Capernaum. 



11 35 
Why the Poor were Chosen 

Jesus had an utter disregard for the gangrene of 
respectability that stuck in the Jewish mind as a bar- 
nacle sticks to the bottom of a ship. He showed it by 
selecting His friends from both the despised and dan- 
gerous classes. All other classes were beyond His reach. 
They were too good, too respectable to be of any use to 
Him. It He had confined Himself to the learned leaders 
or proud custodians of organized religion, the world 
might never have heard of Christianity. The men He 



6o THE CARPENTER AND HIS KINGDOM 

selected were men of the people. They sacrificed nothing. 
In leaving 'all' the publican left a disreputable job, and 
probably much that did not belong to him. When Peter 
said he had 'forsaken' all, Jesus did not embarrass him 
by asking for an inventory. If he had owned anything 
worth cataloguing, he might have followed the rich 
young ruler into oblivion. They were poor — without 
pride of intellect, or social standing, or lineage. One of 
them became the Zenephon of the movement, but they, 
could not all be Zenephons or Bunyans or Bos wells. 
One thing they could all do- — they could testify and 
bear witness. 

The testimony consisted, not so much in what He 
said as in what He was. What He believed concerning 
the Father, and life, and the future they had yet to learn. 
What He was they knew at a sitting. The charm of 
His personality, the calm spirit, the wisdom of words, 
the deep understanding, and tender sympathy, won their 
hearts. In the matter of witnessing, the poorest intellect 
could equal the greatest in warmth of heart, in inter- 
preting, in loyalty, in the utter absence of literature, 
witnessing was the all in all. At the great light they 
lit their little candles and then went out to light up the 
world. 



CHAPTER VI 

THE MIND OP THE MASTER 
If 36 

(1) A Problem 

Jesus was a problem to the twelve. He was a problem to 
the Evangelists, to the early church, to historians, 
philosophers, and theologians of all ages, and He is a 
problem to-day — a palpable problem. 

His Existence Questioned 

By problem is meant that in the very nature of things 
His personality was not and could not be a fixed quantity- 
or a settled dogma. None of the world's great leaders, 
none of the great founders of religious systems ever 
presented such a problem. Hundreds of questions about 
His birth, youth, appearance, and thought, are un- 
answered and unanswerable. The very existence of 
Jesus has been questioned of late years. The questioning 
is a negligible quantity in the problem, however. The 
result of the assumption that Jesus is a myth has been 
to bring out into a more bold relief His personality. 
A sample of the reasoning process by which this mythical 
theory has been reached will demonstrate the ground- 
lessness of its claim. 

A Babylonian Epic 

A German orientalist some years ago wrote a book 
on an epic poem of ancient Babylonia, known as the 
Gilgamesh Epic. Gilgamesh, the hero, was the King 
of Erich. The poem describes the adventures of the 
King and his friend, Eabani. The story antedates 

61 



62 THE CARPENTER AND HIS KINGDOM 

the Christian era by two thousand years. In a literary 
metempsychosis these worthies of Babylonia are made 
to live again in the lives of the Old Testament heroes, 
and later in the founder of the Christian religion and 
in his followers. The process is simple — the method 
used is the parallel. 



Ebania returns from the 
wilderness to his dwelling, 
the home of Gelgamesh. 



Jesus returns from the wil- 
derness to his home. 



A plague of fever. Xisuth- 
ros intercede for suffering 
humanity, by which prob- 
ably the plague is stopped. 



The mother-in-law of Peter 
is sick of a fever and Jesus 
heals her. 



Xisuthros builds himself a 
ship and keeps it ready. 

Xisuthros with his family 
and friends enter the ship 
one evening. 



A boat is kept ready for 
Jesus. 

Jesus and His disciples enter 
the boat one evening. 



A storm arises and falls. 



A storm arises and falls. 



Xisuthros lands with his 
family far from his dwell- 
ing. 



Jesus lands in Perea, the 
other side of the lake from 
His home. 



Sinful humanity and most 
of the animals, including 
the swine are drowned in 
the flood. 



Two thousand demons or 
more and two thousand 
swine are drowned in the 
lake over which Jesus sailed 



The story of Noah and the flood resembles closely this 
Babylonian version, but when it is carried over into the 
New Testament history and applied to Jesus the parallel 
becomes foolish and absurd on the face of it. 

Imitators and followers of this German author have 



THE MIND OF THE MASTER 63 

fared no better. The attention they drew to themselves 
was the furore a of day, and passed away. The charge 
that, 'the example of Jesus (in recognising demoniacal 
possession) has been made to justify the most atrocious 
cruelties of history, ' may not be wholly without truth, 
but it is an unfair charge. The burning of the witches 
can no more be charges to His example than can the 
Inquisition. 



If 37 
His Imagery 

His use of the current forms, both in method and 
content, was retrospective. These forms are strange to 
us. When he speaks — if He did so speak — of Satan as 
falling from heaven, and of the judgment of the world 
by His twelve disciples from as many thrones we cannot 
take it literally. No candid reader of the New Testament 
can fail to see that the people to whom He ministered 
believed that the world was hurrying toward a catas- 
trophic end. Such a belief meant the negation of all 
social values. If the world was coming to an end why 
should men bother about the trivial values and associa- 
tions of common life? 

The Catastrophic End 

As to how much this view was shared by Jesus the 
record is not clear. There are social values in the Sermon 
on the Mount, and in the parables. His belief in the 
catastrophic end is contained in isolated sentences, here 
and there, without sequence. Continually in his audi- 
ences crops up the question of a catacysmal ending. He 
accepts it. At one time He accepts the 'world-affirming 
ethic ' which affirms that in God's world men should be 
good citizens. At another time He accepts the 'world- 
denying ethic* which calls men to separate themselves 



64 THE CARPENTER AND HIS KINGDOM 

from the world and the cares thereof, to contemplation 
and reflection. Both of these are aspects of ethical teach- 
ing, recognised in all ages and amongst all people. Both 
are liable to extreme interpretation. Over-emphasis in 
one direction leads to worldiness and in another to as- 
ceticism. 

If the world was not drawing to an end men were — as 
far as the world was concerned. Some have seen in the 
catastrophic expectation a later teaching, but their argu- 
ments are not convincing. They but add to the problem. 
We find it in the literature of the Jews, in larger measure 
than we do in the Gospels. 

Sometimes this idea is confused with the coming 
of the Kingdom of God. When Jesus is asked for 
details He refuses to give any. 'That,' He said, 4s 
reserved for the Father, alone.' 

Questions of the Ages 

The Animistic theory of disease was accepted by 
people of His day. It was believed that evil spirits 
entered into human bodies and caused mental and 
physical derangement. 

Jesus seems to have shared this belief. 'If Jesus was 
omnipotent, ' it is asked, ' why did He lend His sanction 
to such a theory?' We do not know. Was He the 
founder of a new religion, or merely one of a line of 
Jewish prophets? Did He encourage men to look for a 
coming Kingdom, or did He teach that the Kingdom is 
here and now? Was He a spiritual genius or a unique 
religious Jewish leader? Was He a dreamer who gave His 
life for a dream, or was He a benevolent fanatic ? Was he 
a revelation of eternal truth, or a deluded idealist? Was 
He normal or abnormal ? Was He startled into leadership 
by John the Baptist, or was He during the silent years of 
obscurity preparing for His work? Did He contemplate 
that His message of the Kingdom of God would later be 
set aside for the Church? or were the later changes 
adaptations to time and current controversy and 



THE MIND OF THE MASTER 65 

circumstances? Was He the product of His time or 
the Messenger of God bearing to the world God's 
love? Is His message as applicable to the twentieth 
century as it was to the first? These are but a few of 
the multitude of questions that are asked concerning 
Jesus. They invade the domain of theology — they are 
a challenge to the church, they are not the pharisaic 
carpings of insincere critics. They are questionings 
of the spirit, and must be spiritually answered. They 
come to us as Nathaniel came to Jesus. This honest 
doubter Jesus characterised as, 'an Israelite in whom 
there was no guile.' 

The truth has nothing to fear from questions. Truth 
which cannot be examined, questioned, and analysed 
is open to serious question and may be only truth in 
name. 

The Problem Solvable 

Jesus as problem is solvable. The process of solution 
is rightly dividing the world of truth. It is getting back 
of what men said about Him and what they imagined 
He said, to what He said of Himself, of His Father, and 
His Father's children. This is the modern trend. 
It is a healthy trend and can result only in clearer con- 
ception of His personality, His message, and His King- 
dom. 



II 38 

(2) As Teacher 

The Divine Art of Life 

It has been said that Jesus knew nothing of Greek 
culture. Without underestimating the value of Greek 
or any other culture, perhaps we should be grateful 
for this limitation. He taught the world the divine 



66 THE CARPENTER AND HIS KINGDOM 

art of living. That was something that neither the 
Greeks nor the Jews knew much about. They possessed 
the forms but they were lifeless. The passionless 
pursuit of knowledge has usually been accompanied by a 
vulgar disregard for the culture of millions of human 
beings by whose labour alone culture is possible. The 
world's tyrants have all been cultured men. 

Jesus shines supreme as a Teacher. Teaching is a 
matter of suiting mental seed to mental soil, in such 
a way and under such conditions as to produce the 
greatest quantity and the choicest of mental fruit. 
Without knowledge of the soil in which He sowed, 
a full appreciation of what He produced is impossible. 
The soil of Israel was rather barren. It was stony 
ground. 

Spiritual Tree Grafting 

In His teaching He used the customary forms of 
methods of address to His people. He added to the 
deposit of mind stuff around Him, His own contri- 
bution and a genius of interpretation that illuminated 
the whole. It was like grafting into an old tree the 
sprig of another and better tree. The sprig so grafted 
begins with the advantage of roots and trunk already 
matured. 

As a teacher, His demeanour was usually calm, 
placid, and measured, but there were times when He 
displayed another phase of temperament. His eyes 
must have flashed with indignant fire when He cleansed 
His Father's house of the vulgar traffic and bankers 
who were using the sacred edifice for gain. They have 
been quite at home ever since, but their immunity is 
due to our lack of His perspective. 

II 39 
Jesus always Get-at-able 

His message was the Kingdom of God. It included 
an exposition of the nature of God, God's laws, God's 



THE MIND OF THE MASTER 67 

children — their relation to Him and their relation to 
each other. He took all these things and wove them 
into a fabric, the texture of which was infinitely greater 
and more beautiful than anything Israel ever knew. 
He did this with consummate skill. It was not wholly 
acceptable to all. Various threads were acceptable 
to various minds. The warp and woof was rejected 
by the theological experts of His day, but accepted 
by the common people. His success, even measured 
by leaders opposed to Him was great. There are 
strange and striking contrasts between Him and the 
super-spiritual stars of the modern religious firmament. 
Jesus was always get-at-able. He had no attendants, 
no understudies, secretaries, or door-keepers to 'pro- 
tect' Him from intrusion. He was the common posses- 
sion of all sorts and conditions of men and women. 
Social outcasts were as welcome, and could reach Him 
as easy as Nicodemus. He was as different from them 
in method as in personality. 

Personal Charm 

The one word that describes His personality more 
than any other is the word 'charm.' When I was a 
coal miner I once heard Henry Drummond. We — 
the audience — were all miners and understood him 
rather indifferently, I am afraid, but the charm of 
his personality sent at least one man out of the audience 
with a new spiritual experience. It was infinitely 
more true of the Master, His voice, His manner, His 
tender consideration put all people in a mood to listen 
and inspired them with a desire to learn. 

The record tells of His weeping, but there is no word 
intended to convey the idea that He ever laughed. Yet 
we know He laughed. All normally-minded people 
laugh. The juxtaposition of dissimilar ideas had 
the same effect on Jesus that it has on us. The 
foolishness of the wise and the wisdom of the foolish 
were manifested often in His immediate circle and the 
mental gymnastics of the Pharisees and the blundering 



68 THE CARPENTER AND HIS KINGDOM 

impulsiveness of Peter, and others, must often have 
spread out the thin smile into a wide, joyous laugh. 



11 40 
Mirth 

The inconsistency of the Pharisees He illustrated by 
a word picture. We get it in an outline without even the 
suggestion of a smile. It is the sort of thing that all the 
world laughs at. When Eastern people tell a story the : 
words are always accompanied with facial expression, : 
movement of body and expressive gestures. The body [ 
talks. We get nothing of this in the Gospel record. 
Commentators talk and write of the 'joyousness' of;' 
Jesus, and not a few books have been written on the sub- 
ject but a few have been able to escape the spell of tradi- 
tion and speak of Him as laughing ! Tradition tells us ; 
that only theologians born north of the Tweed can be 
joyous without laughing! Jesus was born in a warmer 
climate. After a series of scathing denunciations He ': 
caps the climax with a metaphor that for a realistic pic- 
ture of absurdity cannot be equalled. He pictures a 
dignified Pharisee consciously choking on a fly and un- : 
consciously swallowing a camel ! A companion picture is 
that of a man who saw a splinter in his neighbour's eye l , 
and couldn't see the log in his own! Jesus was always 
a good shot at a fact. When assailed there was an 
instinctive alertness in His parry and unerring pre- 
cision in His thrust. Sometimes He entangles the ; 
Pharisees in their own net. 'By what authority do 
you do these things?' they asked. Their answer has : 
the semblance of evasion, but a close study of it re- 
veals the fact that they had set a trap for Him, and 
He replied in kind by laying one for them ! 'The Bap- 
tism of John,' He asks them, 'was it of God or of 
man?' They were wary — they refused to commit 
themselves. So did He. It is not the highest ideal, but 



THE MIND OF THE MASTER 69 

He knew His people. By refusing to fall into their traps 
they would be less likely to repeat it, and by offering them 
one in return they would be forced to see clearly that if 
they wanted a straight answer they must ask a straight 
question. The twelve were going out as sheep amnog 
wolves. They would be quick to note His method with 
insincere inquirers. 

He Teaches by Example 

Meeting, incessantly, as He was the intolerable 
burden of legalism, He was not likely to substitute 
a new net with a finer mesh than the old one. He 
never attacked the laws as a whole. As occasion of- 
fered He showed the absurdity of external restraints 
which did not restrain. He did this by example rather 
than by precept. We occasionally find Him using 
'thou shalt not,' but in the midst of the restriction 
He radiated a super-personality in a human, trans- 
parent way, met each question or difficulty as it came up, 
then said, 'Go thou and do likewise.' Working from 
within, out, was the principle which, if followed, 
would solve all the difficulties of the law and give satis- 
faction to the soul. It was the spirit, He emphasized — 
He pointed out that the letter alone meant death, the 
spirit meant life. 

I In sending them out, He gave the disciples some 
injunctions about physical furnishing. He might 
have summed them up in a phrase, 'When you go 
out, go as I go,' but He made it mandatory: 'don't 
be anxious about clothes, or food, or money. As 
you teach you will be cared for. As you go into 
people's houses, salute the house courteously. 
Don't be discouraged if resented. Your words of 
courtesy kindly spoken will return to you.' 

11 41 
Thoughts are Things 
Are thoughts things, then? Certainly! A kind 



7 o THE CARPENTER AND HIS KINGDOM 

thought is as potent and vital as a wireless wave winging 
its flight — through the air. Nothing is plainer in the 
teaching of Jesus. The word of salutation was ' Shalom' — 
peace. If it was rejected it was returned, and was added 
to the stock of peace in the heart. 'The words that 
I speak unto you, they are spirit, and they are life.' 
We are learning the secret of wireless words caught in 
mid-ocean on the mast of a ship. We have yet to learn 
the full meaning of the power of kind thoughts and kind 
words sent out long distances to comfort and to bless. 
When He expresses gratitude to those who had remained 
loyal and true to Him in His temptation, we are in contact 
with the other side of the shield. Thoughts may be 
malignant and potent also. His enemies were sending 
evil thoughts to Him and He felt them. 

The People crowd around Him. 

While He was moulding the twelve into messengers 
and witnesses, He was doing the work for which the 
moulding was a preparation. Men of all classes and 
women and little children hung on his words. They 
followed Him along the shores of the lake and so crowded 
Him that He made one of the boats a pulpit and ad- 
dressed the multitude from it. On another occasion the 
people were so eager to be near Him, that they forgot 
their meals, and he was importuned to provide food for 
them. He seems to have turned occasionally from the 
crowd to the twelve and delivered some special words for 
their ears only. Most of the personal instruction was 
given, however, in the privacy of His own house in 
Capernaum. 



11 42 

His Methods 

Personality and its cultivation was always a major 
theme. His method was the object-lesson, the proverb, 



THE MIND OF THE MASTER 71 

the parable. To teach humility, He takes a child and 
analyzes the nature of its mind. It is a beautiful picture. 
The unfruitful fig-tree is made a warning against in- 
sincerity. The usefulness and benevolence that knows 
no limitations is illustrated by the story of the Good 
Samaritan. In the ungrateful servant who, being 
forgiven a great debt, refuses to show mercy to the 
minor debtor, we have an object lesson in gratitude, 
and when He wants to imbue them with patient hope, 
He tells the parable of the absent Master who returned 
when least expected. The lessons are not of the class- 
room. They are of the open road, the hill-side, and the 
quiet house-top in the cool of the evening. 

We are puzzled by the selection of Judas. Was he 
mentally denying the thoughts of the Master, while 
the others were assimilating them and working them 
out? Was the betrayal the climax of a long series of 
negotiations, or a dynamic and sudden reversal of 
all he had learned ? We do not know, but we know that 
Jesus was quick, instinctive, and penetrating in His 
judgment of men. He gave Judas — as He gave all men — 
his chance, and Judas missed it. That we know, and 
that is all that is necessary to know. He was as sensitive 
to nature as He was to men. No mood or aspect escaped 
His notice. 



God and His World 

Ponderous volumes issued from the pen of Calvin 
in one of the most beautiful spots in the world, yet 
they contain no hint that He ever saw the mountains 
or valleys or lakes. Those who wrote of Jesus could 
not avoid recording His intense love of nature. He 
knew the birds. His father cared for the least of 
them — a sparrow. He pointed to the lilies, He spoke 
of their growth, and said that the regal splendour of 
Solomon was as nothing compared to them. His 
reference to flowers and birds, to trees and grass and 
sunsets, of the fox and his hole, and the lilies of the 



72 THE CARPENTER AND HIS KINGDOM 

field, were not text-book sayings — they were familiar 
inhabitants of the thought world of Jesus. As teacher 
He was not saying to His pupils, 'Notice my use of 
nature terms!' He referred to a lily as He referred 
to God. Both were real to Him, and he was a dull 
pupil who could not understand. And how strangely 
this intimacy with nature was forgotten by His followers ! 
St. Francis in his love for ' sister moon ' and ' brother 
wolf reminds us of Him — and could anything greater 
be said of a man? Great orators make us think of 
Demosthenes. There have been great orators in the 
Christian church. The fire of their words kindles other 
fires. There have been men of great faith, and they 
have strengthened the faith of others, but it takes more 
than oratory or faith to make us compare a man with 
Jesus. 

f 43 

Simplicity of His Teaching 

Paul and John are both great teachers. As expositors 
they have illuminated and explained many abstruse 
problems, but we search in vain in the teaching of 
Jesus for such philosophical and theological discourses 
as they gave us. It was not the simple truths of the 
relation of man to God and man to man as taught by 
Jesus which were forged into terrible weapons of offensive 
theological warfare, it was the inference drawn from 
them by His interpretators who were unwilling that 
other men should view from a different angle. 

In view of the complex systems of doctrines arising 
out of the Gospel records it is remarkable that the 
message of Jesus is as unique in omission as in content. 

A Living Faith 

As teacher, He knew that if a man had a pure heart 
it would be a waste of energy to issue to him a long 



THE MIND OF THE MASTER 73 

series of warnings against women. If every day was a 
holy day he would not need the legal instructions con- 
cerning the Sabbath. When the pure in heart see God 
they need no signposts. Of the millions who crowd the 
streets of London, how few there are who know anything 
of the laws relating to street traffic. Instinct and 
intuition tells them that higher than the law known to 
the policemen is the courtesy of the sidewalk. As 
teacher, Jesus imparted His personality the chief char- 
acteristic of which was a living faith in God. When 
that became a personal experience it manifested itself in 
others as it did in Him. Whatever failure has attended 
Christianity, has been due to the teachers putting the 
cart before the horse. 

The Value of the Human Soul 

Closely akin to this living faith in the Father was 
His faith in the eternal worth of the human soul. He 
was the supreme truster of men. He saw the good 
in them. He pointed out the possibilities in personality. 
He saw it in publicans and sinners. He cultivated 
and defended it. As a positive force this faith in per- 
sonality has persisted. No matter how the church 
changed, quarrelled, decayed, or flourished, it still 
clung to this cardinal contribution — the central theme. 
It has not been confined to the stewardship of faith. 
It has gone beyond its confines and millions of men 
unconnected with organised religion, hark back to 
Jesus in the recognition of the worth of the individual 
human soul. 



If 44 
(3) As Influence 

Christianity gains nothing by such extravagant 
claims as it has made throughout the centuries. When- 



74 THE CARPENTER AND HIS KINGDOM 

ever and wherever the trust as Jesus lived it has been 
tried, it has given new life, and new vision, but it has 
not been very extensively applied to life. His truth and 
Christianity are two different things, however. 

The bribery, corruption, and persecutions which 
followed what is called 'the conversion of Constantine' 
were the methods of politicians to extend an official 
religion, but they had nothing in common with the 
Master's point of view. 

Christianity and Buddhism 

The edicts of Theodosius, dictated by his hireling 
theologians and visited with ruthless severity upon 
'heretics,' were as unlike Jesus as fire is unlike water. 
The long series of barbarous methods of propagating 
Christianity in those days were in strange contrast 
to the methods of Buddhism, which were devoid of 
such vulgar brutality. As a consequence Buddhism 
made much more progress than Christianity. Con- 
stantine, Theodosius and Henry the Eighth as a trinity of 
propagandists stand out in strange contrast to the 
fishermen selected by Jesus in Galilee. The latter 
were ambassadors of the loving heart, the simple life, 
and the democratic community. The former were 
largely responsible for the substitution of priestcraft 
for discipleship. They turned religion into a state 
policy and made mutton out of God's sheep. 



Jesus and the Child 

Christian propagandists are fond of talking about 
the influence of Jesus on woman, and the life of the 
child. A British statesman in the second decade of 
the twentieth century, tells the British nation that 
an expenditure of two hundred thousand pounds a 
year would prevent the death of fifty thousand babies ! 
How? By providing food! 



THE MIND OF THE MASTER 75 

f 45 
Jesus and Business 

Millions of little children are slaves of the wheel 
of labour, hundreds of thousands of mothers give birth 
to children under conditions that are filthy, brutal, 
and vulgar — conditions which are much worse than 
those under which our domestic animals are brought 
into being. This does not mean that the religion of 
Jesus has failed. It means that it has not been tried. 
It means that we hold the theory, but we have not 
been able with all our boasted loyalty to God to inoculate 
the state and business with the love which is the essence 
of the Kingdom of God. Despite all this, despite the 
multitudes who say, and do not, despite the impedimenta 
that clogs the stream of life, despite priestcraft and 
Pharisaism, and rampant hypocrisy, Jesus as influence 
is a powerful factor in the lives of men. He is a power in 
organised religion. He is a greater power outside of 
the organisation. I have heard thousands of men who 
never enter a place of worship, cheer the name of Jesus 
with genuine enthusiasm. In the homes of the poor, in 
the hearts of the nondescript men and women, His name 
has power. It stands for tenderness, kindness, disinter- 
estedness, and love. Millions reject things called by 
His name. They accept Him. Without entering the 
discussion as to whether religion is a universal instinct 
or not we may safely say that the mind of man engrosses 
itself with the unknowable as well as the knowable. 

It searches the heavens, it tunnels the mountains, 
it explores vast regions of earth, and sea, and sky. The 
mind of man aspires. Beyond what we know of either 
chaos or order we aspire to discover cause. We crave 
some gleam of hope for a life after death. Here Jesus 
becomes to us the most powerful of all influences. He 
postulates that which we are striving to know. He 
opens a door by which we enter into a larger hope, a 
surer confidence. For this hope the world is indebted 
to the Gospels. The truth handed down has had many 



76 THE CARPENTER AND HIS KINGDOM 

interpreters, many versions, many distortions, but it is 
ours, and apart from books or buildings or sects or schisms 
we secretly cling to it, and the closer we cling the clearer 
the vision. Nor was the vision clearer to those whose 
privilege it was to listen to His gracious words and 
contemplate His form. When the gospels were written 
there were those who had seen and heard Him. There 
were traditions which awakened and strengthened 
faith in Him. In our day we have no such aids. The 
truth has clothed itself in many forms in the succeeding 
ages and in the continual change of trustees and cus- 
todians. To us, much that seemed essential to those 
disciples and their successors, is purely historical. 
But the essence and content of the spiritual experience 
transmitted from Jesus to His friends, is a unique fact, 
and is perhaps better understood in the twentieth cen- 
tury than it was in the first. 

One reason may be that for centuries men's minds 
have been re-exploring His unique personality. The 
more we explore that, the more we know of our own 
personalities, and the more we know of God's. The 
content of His personality becomes more and more 
the standard by which we make our judgments, estimate 
values, and arrive at a new criterion and a new orien- 
tation of God. 



Jesus the Foundation 

There is a healthy and almost universal desire to 
shelve apologetics and reinstate the experience of 
the soul. We are all looking for a sounder basis for faith 
than the varying and uncertain results of critical pro- 
cesses. This sounder, surer foundation can only be found 
in Jesus, His life, His words, and His sacrifice. We are 
going back to His central principles, His point of de- 
parture, which was love. Love in action — toward the 
Father and toward men ; in union with God and brotherly 
fellowship. 



THE MIND OF THE MASTER 77 

If 46 
The Infallible Guide 

As if by instinct we turn away from the learned dis- 
cussions of the theologians to the simple stories Jesus 
told. The story of the prodigal and his father, the cen- 
turion of Capernaum, the Samaritan, heretic, and the 
woman who broke the box of alabaster. We tire, the 
world tires of intellectual fencing over religious things. 
Whatever edification it gave the past it has no place in 
our times. We never tire of Him, the world never tires 
of His stories, illustrating life. 

The influence of Jesus is so potent in the twentieth 
century that the desire of the masses can be satisfied 
with nothing less than the simple truth He taught, about 
Himself, His Father, and our Father, and the power of 
love. 

Much has been written about the influence of Jesus in 
art, poetry, and literature, by which is meant, that poets, 
painters, writers, and thinkers, as they have caught His 
spirit, have assimilated and transferred it to their self- 
expression. What happens to the artist happens to the 
artisan. The influence of Jesus is felt first in the heart. 
Whether one reads of His life or is influenced by a spirit- 
ual personality, the result is the same. The same spiritual 
forces are released, the same dynamic change takes place. 
The thought which transforms life is of the same texture 
that was in the soul of Jesus. 

It is still true that the transformation is greatest 
among the poor. It is still true that there is the Kingdom 
of Heaven. It is still true that the wind bloweth where 
it listeth, neither can we tell yet whence it cometh or 
whither it goeth? So it still is concerning those born of 
the spirit. Into a rough underground resort for harlots 
a young woman walked a few years ago with a white rose 
in her hand. She looked around for a moment and then 
handed it to a girl who happened to be the most dissolute 
and abandoned creature in the place. Few words were 



78 THE CARPENTER AND HIS KINGDOM 

spoken, and those that were spoken were not pious 
phrases, but just a winged word of kindly human greeting. 
The girl took the rose and walked out of the place. Up 
and down the low, mean streets she walked, with the rose 
in her hand — thinking. Her thoughts were of the purity 
of the rose and the kindness of the giver. She contrasted 
her life with both, and that led her to seek help where the 
Magdalen found it, and the thought that was in the mind 
of Jesus when He said, 'neither do I condemn thee,' 
entered her mind and she changed the course of her life. 
As a result she got beauty for ashes and joy for heaviness, 
and purity in place of sin. The thought implanted in 
her mind, she implanted in others, and so it went on. 
Having lit her little candle at the great light, she went out 
and lit hundreds of others, and the rest of her life she 
spent for abandoned women, who called her 'the white 
rose of the Ghetto. ' 

And this sort of incident can be multiplied by millions. 
But the influence of Jesus is not confined to individuals. 
It enters into the great unrest and ferment of nations. 
Through fire and blood and tears, the nations are now 
giving birth to a new world. When it is re-born it will be 
nearer His ideal than the old. And this not unconsciously 
or subconsciously, but consciously. The nations are 
now measuring themselves by His standards of values 
and the twice-born men of the new-born world will re- 
think Him in the terms of modern life. That which is 
good and true and pure will survive, and that which de- 
fileth shall be cast into the rubbish heaps of things out- 
grown. 



CHAPTER VII 

THE MASTER AND LABOUR 

1f 47 
A Working Man in Church 

Jesus was a working man. That sentence looks strange 
in print. It seems almost incomprehensible to us. The 
gulf is so wide, between classes and class interests that 
it seems almost inconceivable to us that for eighteen 
years Jesus worked with His hands as a day labourer. 

A celebrated American minister whose name is known 
throughout the world, told me this story: — 

'Yes, ' he said, ' I had one working man in my church, 
in forty years. I noticed him several Sundays, and asked 
the head usher who he was. The usher said he had 
noticed the man's evident interest and attendance and 
had assigned him a seat, but one day he had to tell him 

that Mr had rented the pew for the year. The man 

never^came back. He was a carpenter. ' 

1 He may have been Jesus Himself, ' I suggested. 

'Well,' he said, 'if it was, he received no better treat- 
ment in the twentieth century than He did in the first. ' 

The Jews held labour to be honourable. So do we. It 
was the mainstay of their existence, as it is of ours. But 
they held it to be honourable, in its place. That is our 
attitude. What that place is, is determined by the su- 
perior classes today, just as it was then. For the real 
attitude of the Jews toward those who worked with their 
hands we must look to their literature. In the 38th 
chapter of Ecclesiasticus we get this view of labour : — 

25 How can he get wisdom that holdeth the plough, 
and that glorieth in the goad, that driveth oxen, and 
is occupied in their labours, and whose talk is of bullocks ? 

26 He that giveth his mind to make furrows, and 
is diligent to give the kine fodder. 

79 



8o THE CARPENTER AND HIS KINGDOM 

27 So every carpenter and workmaster that labour- 
eth night and day; and they that cut and grave seals, 
and are diligent to make great variety, and give them- 
selves to counterfeit imagery, and watch to finish a work. 

28 The smith also, sitting by the anvil, and con- 
sidering the ironwork, the vapour of the fire wasteth 
his flesh and he fighteth with the heat of the furnace: 
the noise of the hammer and anvil is ever in his ears, 
and his eyes look still upon the pattern of the thing that 
he maketh; he setteth his mind to finish his work and 
watcheth to polish it properly. 

29 So doth the potter sitting at his work, and turning 
the wheel about with his feet, he applieth himself to 
lead it over ; and he is diligent to make clean the furnace. 

30 He fashioneth the clay with his arm, and boweth 
down his strength before his feet; he applieth himself 
to lead it over, and he is diligent to make clean the furnace. 

3 1 And these trust to their hands, and every one is wise 
in his work. 

32 Without these a city cannot be inhabited; and 
they shall not dwell where they will nor go up and down. 

33 They shall not be sought for in public counsel, 
nor sit high in the congregation; they shall not sit in 
the judge's seat, nor understand the sentence of judg- 
ment; they cannot declare justice and judgment; and 
they shall not be found where parables are spoken. 

34 But they will maintain the state of the world 
and all their desire is in the work of their craft, 

IF 48 

Slavery 

The attitude of Greece and Rome was similar. Rome 
was the parasitic power of the world. War was her 
chief industry and slavery was its essence. After each 
conquest Rome's chief interest was in the horde of slaves, 
who were marched through her streets, apportioned 
among the ruling class and auctioned in the market. 
There were three great sale centres. The supervisors 



THE MASTER AND LABOUR 8r 

kept the books and collected for the State, the four per 
cent, of the sale price. The flesh brokers were as expert 
in improving the appearance of their chattels as dealers 
in horse-flesh are to-day. 

The slaves were trotted to and fro like cattle. They 
were oiled and rubbed and gingered just as horses are. 
Those who tried to escape were branded and mutilated 
with red-hot irons and sharp knives. Every attempt 
to escape or commit suicide lowered the value. The 
slaves' power or inclination to keep themselves at a 
high market value was the means of escape from cruelty. 
When old and useless they were exposed on an island 
on the Tiber to die of cold and hunger. Two-thirds of 
the population of Rome was composed of slaves. They 
did all the useful work and kept the patricians in idleness, 
wantonness, and lust. When their market value fell, 
they were put to the most degrading occupations. Some 
were chained to door-posts as door-keepers, and sold as 
part of the building, when the house changed owners. 
Every man in debt was on the road to slavery. If 
the debt could not be paid there was but one way out. 
The creditor took the debtor and sold him as a slave. 

II 49 
Contempt for the Artisan 

y The contempt for the artisan class was not much 
different. The Roman view is clear enough. 'We 
admire a rich purple dye,' says Cicero, 'but we despise 
the dyer as a vile artisan.' Actors were catalogued 
with the labourers and artisans. A Roman dramatist 
who incurred the displeasure of Csesar was condemned 
to play a part in one of his own dramas. Said the 
dramatist that night at the theatre, 'I have lived one 
day too long. This morning I was a Roman and a 
dramatist, to-night I am a common actor.' Marcus 
Terentius Varro — than whom Rome produced no higher 
type of man — divides agricultural implements into three 
classes: articulate, semi-articulate, and inarticulate. 
The articulate were slaves and labourers, the semi- 



82 THE CARPENTER AND HIS KINGDOM 

articulate were cattle, and the inarticulate wagons and 
tools. Plato and Aristotle would probably have similarly 
classified Grecian labourers. They both considered 
manual toil and mechanical labour as derogatory to the 
status of the citizen. Zenophon held the same opinion. 
His words are almost identical with the words of Eccle- 
siasticus. 'The arts that are called mechanical,' he 
says, 'are naturally held in bad repute in our cities, and 
the people who give themselves up to manual labour 
are never promoted to public office, and with good 
reason.' 

Between slaves and free labourers there was an 
antagonism akin to the antagonism of trade unions 
against prison labour in modern times. Slaves were farm- 
ed out, and the slave holder could afford to do cheaper 
work. In the eyes of the Patrician and Pharisee manual 
toil of whatever character it might be, and performed by 
slaves or free men, was derogatory to the status of 
citizenship. 

Into that sort of social atmosphere came Jesus the 
Carpenter and one of the first inklings we get of his social 
status is the sneer: 'Is not this the carpenter?' 

Jesus a Master Builder 

A carpenter in those days was a builder. He helped fell 
the trees, saw them into logs, trim and dress them, and 
perhaps haul them long distances, He made his own 
tools, dug foundations, selected building material, and 
put his hand not merely to a specific phase of work, but 
to everything that had to be done in building or trans- 
forming the raw material into the finished product. 

During the years that Jesus worked with His hands, 
He must have covered a wide area. He came in contact 
with hundreds of people who were in similar occupations. 
He never trod in the pathway of the priest. He toiled 
along the weary way of the multitude whose lives were 
spent in useful work. It is not at all surprising therefore 
to find His speech punctuated with the vocabulary of the 
poor, the exploited and the worker. The hewers of wood 
and the drawers of water were His people, and when He 



THE MASTER AND LABOUR 83 

speaks of building a house on a rock, they under- 
stand Him when He said, 'Take my yoke upon you 

and learn of me,' probably all present knew that one 
of the jobs He did was to make yokes for oxen. They 
asked no questions about it. A yoke fitted the necks of 
two oxen. It was the yoke that made the burden easy to 
draw, and the parallel truth was that whatever the 
burden of the heart or soul might be, it would be easier 
to carry, if He could be a yoke-fellow. 

II So 
Hand and Brain 

He speaks of putting the hand to the plough, of the 
labourer being worthy of his hire, of the splinter and the 
beam. 'What is the carpenter doing now?' asked a 
henchman of Julian the Apostate. 'He is making a 
coffin, ' said a humble disciple, with ready wit. It was 
purely a proletarian accent when Jesus described the 
temple as a den of thieves. If he had described it as a den 
of hypocrites, He would have aroused no antagonism, but 
'thieves' was the word, and He used it. There was one 
quarter from which Jesus received no criticism. No one 
ever came to Him and complained that His work as a 
builder was beneath the standard, or over-charged, or 
underdone. The work of His hands was as complete as the 
work of His mind, and there is just a possibility that when 
He said, 'My Father worketh hitherto, and I work', 
that He referred to hand work that was subject to the 
examination of all those who listened to Him. 

He selected working men as His disciples — not simply 
because they were workers, but because in that class 
there was a more genuine desire for the life of the spirit. 
Amongst them there were no parasites, no exploiters, 
and if they stole, it was only part of what had been stolen 
from them. They were less hedged about with lies, and 
conventionalities, by superior airs, false standards, and 
spurious values. And the sinners of whom He was 
accused of being the friend. Who were they? They were 
the toilers who had been worsted in the economic strife. 



84 THE CARPENTER AND HIS KINGDOM" 

In His Kingdom, fishermen and labourers 'sat high 
in the congregation.' They were given a larger place 
than any others, simply because they were better ma- 
terial. They were softer clay in the hands of the divine 
potter. 



1 Si 

Jesus the Friend of the Workers 

The people of the ground — Am-ha-aritz — were the un- 
educated. Educated fools and brigands had a status. 
Money then as now was a power. Jesus, as a friend of 
the workers was powerless ; He shared with the workers 
the stigma of ignorance. ' How knoweth this man letters, 
not having learned?' they asked. Jerusalem was the 
centre of snobbery. To the snob, whether Roman or 
Jewish, the Galilean workers were 'hogs' and 'block- 
heads.' The wonder and significance of Jesus associ- 
ating Himself with the 'rabble' has not been fully un- 
derstood. 

The taunt of ignorance could only come from a bastard 
culture. There was nothing in the intellectual furnishing 
of a religious leader that Jesus did not possess. He never 
replies in kind, when the taunt is personal. He never 
apologised, nor explained. He assumed His comrades as 
He assumed the Father. He took His stand and seemed 
pleased to be numbered with the transgressors. As a 
working man He took His place amongst the workers. 

He was thoroughly aware of the social status of labour 
in Rome and Athens and Alexandria and Jerusalem. He 
loved the common people. He despised their despoilers. 
He was courageous enough to defy the standards of the 
world by exalting men who toiled with their hands. 
Instead of ceaselessly castigating the rich and powerful, 
He demonstrated the uselessness of riches and power by 
training labourers to evangelise the world. To do that He 
had to cast the tradition of His own people into the 
scrap heap of worn-out things. 



THE MASTER AND LABOUR 85 

ir 52 

The Workers and the Temple 

What a change came over the Kingdom when He 
went away. What a difference there is to-day between 
what He taught and what His followers practice. If a 
hundred working men and their families were to enter a 
West End church on a Sunday morning they would pre- 
cipitate a sensation. We have a theory that all are equal 
in the House of God, but to practice it would revolution- 
ise our arrangements. The difficulty is social and 
economic. These men and their families wear different 
clothes, speak a different language, have a different look. 
If they decided to attend regularly, the regulars would 
decamp. There is no question of that. What Jesus taught 
would not for a moment be discussed. The demands of 
social usage would take precedence of any dictum of the 
New Testament. Everybody knows what Jesus would do 
and say, everybody unhesitatingly would know what 
to do, but only a distinguished soul would dare to act on 
profound conviction. There are churches to which these 
people could go. If they were Roman Catholics they 
could go to any of their churches. If they were Protes- 
tants they could go to missions or slum churches operated 
by the alms of the rich for the poor, and to which the self- 
respecting never go. 

Great cathedrals have degenerated into museums. 
Great sects into closed religious unions. Great preachers 
into mere talking machines. The methods of Jesus have 
been abandoned, His teaching has been moulded into iron 
bound creeds, and the rich and the powerful, the parasite 
and the exploiter, are now in full possession of the ma- 
chinery of whatever religion the world possesses. 

If a twentieth-century labourer was asked to describe a 
modern temple he would instinctively use the same 
words that Jesus used when describing His Father's 
House in Jerusalem. The conditions are not very diff- 
erent — they are not different to the labourer. 



CHAPTER VIII 

HIS MIND, AND OTHER MINDS 

II 53 
The New Birth 

We are indebted to the fourth Gospel for the story of 
Nicodemus, who, despite the fact that he was a member 
of the Sanhedrin, is presented by the Evangelist as a 
hopelessly colourless individual. He came by night to 
avoid the criticism of his colleagues. 

In answer to a brief statement and two questions, 
Jesus delivered a discourse. That the discourse treats 
of controversies current after His death is beyond ques- 
tion. It is theological and sacramental. But there are 
several sayings in it which are characteristic and illumi- 
native of the Gospel of the Kingdom. 

'Rabbi,' he begins, 'we know that thou art a teacher 
come from God: for no man can do these miracles, that 
Thou dost, except God be with Him.' 

Jesus refuses to discuss the miracles. That is signif- 
icant. The Kingdom is His theme. The new experience 
is fundamental. Without any acknowledgement of the 
compliment concerning miracles, He tells the ruler that 
he must be born anew. When he childishly asks how, 
Jesus gives him an explanation which, if the Christians 
had remembered, would have saved them shedding each 
other's blood, and prevented hatred, bitterness and in- 
tolerance throughout the centuries. 

'The wind bloweth where it listeth, thou near- 
est the sound thereof, but canst not tell whither 
it cometh or whither it goeth, so is every one 
that is born of the spirit.' 

In other words the new birth is spiritual, and the 
mysterious reaction of the divine life upon human life, 

86 



HIS MIND, AND OTHER MINDS 87 

can no more be defined than the origin of the wind. 
But like the wind its presence can be felt. We know the 
wind blows. We know the effect of spiritual life. In 
view of those momentous words of Jesus what are we to 
think of the dogmatism that settled the origin and desti- 
nation of the life spiritual and declared heretics all who 
refused to accept its definition. 

What are we to think of the narrow exclusiveness of the 
sects who to-day refuse to recognise anything as Christian 
beyond the pale of their authority and anybody who 
sees the same truth from a different angle ? We need only 
to say that their attitude is unlike the attitude of Jesus. 

The state of the ruler's mind seems to have been that 
of the ancient poet who said : ' I see the better course and 
approve it, but I follow the worse.' Such an attitude was 
familiar to Jesus. 'If ye know these things,' He 
said, 'happy are ye if ye do them.' When Jesus pleads 
He pleads with a city, a nation, or a universe — never with 
an individual. He never usurped the prerogative of per- 
sonality. He presented the better way and left the 
choice, decision, and determination to the individual will. 

While Nicodemus was yet in the presence of Jesus his 
personality — whatever there was of it — had merged into 
a religious caste. The discourse of Jesus was delivered to 
a sect — not an individual. 

He was not prepared to sever the links which bound 
him to his official capacity, his reputation and his 
emoluments. 

Jesus does not plead. He has none of the over-zeal of 
the evangelist who feels it incumbent upon him to 
'draw the net.' Jesus outlines to the ruler the truth of 
which he stands in need, and leaves it there. Over the 
old man's head hung a crown, but he was bowed down 
so heavily with the old regime that he could not see it. 
He was of that vast multitude who, being not far from 
the Kingdom, never entered it. It was not a matter of 
doubt or rationalism. It was just common ordinary fear 
of the truth. 

The record tells us that later in the Sanhedrin he made 



88 THE CARPENTER AND HIS KINGDOM 

a point of order: 'Doth our law judge a man except it 
first hear himself and know what he doeth?' 

But when the same Sanhedrin condemned Him to 
death, Nicodemus does not appear to have protested. 
After His death he assisted Joseph of Arimathaea to 
give His body the respect due to the dead. 

We have but a mere fragment of tradition that he 
became a disciple. If he did it was when the early dis- 
ciples deemed it not inconsistent to be Jews and Chris- 
tians at the same time. 

It was one of these numerous cases where the good 
becomes the enemy of the best, and the rejection? of 
the highest truth marks clearly the line of demarcation 
between that which is evil and that which is good. 

It was not the mere perception of truth which merited 
His approval, but the following of it whithersoever 
it led! 



IF 54 
The Little Man in the Tree 

It happened in the days of His popularity. He was 
going along the road to Jericho — the sides of the road 
were lined with people who were eager to get a close 
view of Him. Zacchseus was a little man unable to 
see and unwilling to fight for a place in the crowd. 
He climbed a tree. There he sat with eager eyes and 
anxious heart, awaiting His coming. Whatever of 
truth there may be in telepathy or clairvoyance was 
as true then as now, but neither was necessary to ac- 
quaint Jesus with the unusual incident. 

He was sensitive to His mental environment. He 
could read not only men's faces, but men's thoughts 
as well and as easily. With keen, penetrating insight 
into the little man's character, Jesus stopped for a 
moment when he came to the tree, and looking up, 
said: 'Make haste and come down, Zacchaeus, 
for to-day I want to abide at your home.' The 



HIS MIND AND OTHER MINDS 89 

crowd stopped, watched, and listened. What they 
heard displeased them. The value they put upon 
themselves was high. The value they put upon the 
publican was low, very low. 'Think of it,' they mur- 
mured, 'He is going to be the guest of a man who is a 
sinner!' And he was. That was His way. He had 
His standard of values. The crowd had theirs. They 
were different. Jesus asked no questions. The supreme 
truster of men knew that this was the first time the man 
had ever been trusted, ever been recognised, ever been 
honoured with confidence. Zacchasus is surprised. He 
makes no profession of belief or faith. The master's 
confidence produces an instant effect. As a study in 
values, the effect produced is instructive. Spiritual 
values at this crisis in the life of Zacchasus were unknown, 
but the importance of ethical values instantly occurs to 
him. He hears the murmuring, he hears the charge, 
the charge is true. He makes no defence. It is not 
improbable that in the crowd there were those upon 
whom he had practised usury or wrung from them in taxes 
more than belonged to him. He knows what is wrong, 
and the first thought in his mind is to put it right. 
Restitution is the ethical foundation upon which he 
proposes to build the spiritual superstructure. In 
effect he said: — 

'Master, what they say is, alas, only too true, but 
here and now I will restore fourfold to any man I have 
wronged, and in addition I will give half of all I possess 
to the poor ! ' 

And Jesus said to him: — 

'This day is salvation (soteria — safety, sound- 
ness) come to this house.' 

In the Old Testament the word salvation occurs 
about 113 times. In the Gospels it is only used five 
times. Zacchasus used it three times, John the Baptist 
once, and Jesus once. In the Old Testament the meaning 
attached to the word is breadth, enlargement. The 
passage through the Red Sea was salvation; safety 
from an enemy, healing from sickness, victory in battle 
were all comprehended in the word. In the case of 



po THE CARPENTER AND HIS KINGDOM 

Zacchasus salvation meant his enlargement of life and 
safety from the enemy of covetousness and greed. 
The words as fell from the lips of Jesus did not mean 
what it meant to a later age. 

Salvation in good measure, pressed down and running 
over came to the home of the publican when Jesus en- 
tered it. Significant also are the words: — 

'For the Son of Man is come to seek and to 

save that which was lost.' 

Zacchasus was lost in business, in money grabbing, 
in commercial crookedness. In contradistinction to 
Nicodemus, he saw the way out, approved it, and ac- 
cepted it with joy. 

To the good man He said: 'You must be born 
again,' to the bad men: 'I am your guest to-day, 
make haste and conduct me to your home.' 



f 55 
The Poor Rich Man 

'Good Rabbi,' said a rich young ruler to Jesus one 
day, ' What must I do to inherit eternal life ? ' 
He answered: — 

'Why callest thou me good? None is good 
save one, that is God. Thou knowest the com- 
mandments. . .' 
And the young ruler answered, 'All these I have kept 
since my youth. 
Jesus added: — 

'One thing thou lackest. Sell all that thou 
hast and give it to the poor, and come, follow me.' 
And the ruler was grieved and went away without 
any answer, for he had great possessions. It would 
be just as true to say he was greatly possessed. Mark 
adds a tender and significant touch. He says Jesus 
looked upon him and loved him. Jesus could put as 
much into a look as he could into a whole discourse. 
By the mere flash of His eyes He must have stricken 



HIS MIND AND OTHER MINDS 91 

terror to the money changers. They must have 
turned live coals when He said, 'Go and tell that fox 
(Herod) behold I cast out devils and do cures!' 

— but immediately afterwards there came over Him 
an ineffable tenderness and He said: — 

'O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, thou that killest 
the prophets and stonest those who are sent 
unto thee, how often would I have gathered thy 
children as a hen gathers her chickens under her 
wing and ye would not!' 

He met the young ruler on the ground of his personal 
experience and personal character. He had his pe- 
culiar needs and Jesus knew what they were. Why 
did the founder of the Christian religion throw this 
young man back on the ten commandments and assure 
him that eternal life lay in their observance? Why 
did He tell him that God alone was good? Because 
these were the thoughts that were coursing through 
the young man's brain. These were the ideals that he 
held. To his thinking man could reach no higher — 
this was the mark toward which he was pressing when 
he came to Jesus. He knew there was something 
more. It was not very definite or even outlined in 
his mind, but he knew that Jesus could, and would, 
tell him. Jesus did. Lovingly and tenderly He handled 
him. 'There is only one thing more,' He said, 
'sell all you have and be one of my circle of 
friends.' Here again Jesus makes entrance to the 
Kingdom hang on not a theological formula but on 
what a man is willing to do rather than on what he is 
willing to think. What he thought could only be 
tested by what he did. No such test is asked of a man 
as a prerequisite to entrance into any form of organised 
religion, in modern times. 'My brethren, if a man 
come into your assembly with a gold ring,' James said, 
'and in goodly apparel, and there come in also a poor 
man in vile raiment, have ye not respect to him that 
weareth the gay clothing?' They had, and we have 
still. But Jesus had no expensive organisation to 
support, nor did He contemplate any. 



92 THE CARPENTER AND HIS KINGDOM 

Meagre as the report of the incident is, the impression 
we get is one of sorrow and regret. What Jesus saw in 
Him we also see — great possibilities. Only one thing 
stood in the way — his money. Opportunity may knock 
more than once, but at least once she knocks loudly, 
and the call is unmistakable. Two doors were opened 
to the young man, one leading to the Kingdom, the 
other to personal oblivion. He hardly hesitated. He 
walked through the door of oblivion and shut it behind 
him with a bang! 

Jesus sighed and said: — 

'How hardly shall they that have riches enter 
into the Kingdom of God. It is easier for a 
camel to go through the eye of a needle than 
for a rich man to enter the Kingdom of God.' 
The young ruler like the church at Laodicea (and 
nearer home) thought he was rich when in fact he was 
poor and blind and wretched. 



IF 56 

Martha's Kitchen-Mindedness 

One cry of loneliness, of desolate isolation, escaped 
the lips of Jesus, 'The foxes have holes, the birds 
of the air have nests, but the Son of Man hath 
not where to lay his head!' The one relief to 
this loneliness was the home at Bethany. That He 
was a frequent visitor we may assume from the familiarity 
expressed, from the discussion of the relative values of 
home life and responsibility. 

It is a purely domestic scene, and the only one we 
have of the kind. To the sacred joys associated with 
the name of Home He was an utter stranger. No 
cry ever better illustrates the craving of the human 
heart for fellowship. During the day He was amongst 
people — usually crowds of people. At night He was 
the companion of men, and men who probably plied 
Him with questions as children might. He lived in a 



HIS MIND AND OTHER MINDS 93 

perpetual mental storm, the storm of mental change 
around Him, a storm of conflicting opinions. His own 
was calm but the process of eternally calming others 
is a tax and strain on the nervous system that He was as 
susceptible to as we are. The visit to the home of 
Zacchseus was an incident. Our imagination likes to 
play on the thought that after long journeys He repaired 
to the home of the two sisters and their brother at 
Bethany. 

Of Lazarus we know little. Jesus loved him. That 
is enough. Of the sisters we have mental portraits, 
clear and distinct. They are distinct types. In the 
brief narrative we have their likes and dislikes clearly 
outlined in a simple domestic scene. 

Martha was the busy hands of the home, and Mary 
the loving heart. One was a practical activity and 
the other a receptivity. Martha was careful and 
Mary thoughtful. On the arrival of Jesus Martha 
went to the kitchen and Mary went to the sitting-room. 
The division of labour and responsibility was based on 
experience and understanding. Martha was probably 
a better cook, but in the presence of highly sensitised 
natures food is not the only consideration. Jesus needed 
the home atmosphere and friendly communion. Mary 
was giving Him that, the comment of Jesus is the 
final judgment on the justice of Martha's complaint. 

She broke in upon them and demanded His judgment 
on the division of labour — rather, she asked for a review 
of whatever understanding there was between them. 
Jesus gave it. Martha was afflicted with kitchen- 
mindedness. If she had been overworked she could 
have made an excuse. He would have understood. 
If there was just cause for complaint she could have 
talked it over quietly after the meal. It was a common 
case of fussiness, tinged with a little jealousy. Kitchen- 
mindedness is a purely flesh pot-dish-washing mentality. 
Somebody has to cook and wash and sew, but in the 
•presence of such a guest an explosive irritability was in 
bad taste. There is scarcely a home in any civilised 
country that is not afflicted with kitchen-mindedness — 



94 THE CARPENTER AND HIS KINGDOM 

some fussing member who labours hard but cannot resist 
the temptation in the obvious fact, just as Martha did. 
'Lord, dost Thou not care that my sister hath left 
me to serve alone? bid her therefore that she help me.' 
It is a petulant wail that betrays a weakness of char- 
acter. Kindly He said: — 

'Martha, Martha, thou art anxious and troub- 
led about many things. But one thing is need- 
ful; and Mary hath chosen that good part which 
shall not be taken away from her.' 
And the 'good part' was a quiet confidence, an 
evenness of temperament that could serve as quietly 
in the kitchen as in the sitting-room. Jesus did not 
go there merely to eat. He went to rest, and found 
Himself in the midst of what He had probably gone 
to escape. Home is an atmosphere dominated by 
love, and love seeketh not her own. During His 
various visits he had built up in the minds of the sisters 
some conception of the Kingdom. He had explained its 
basic values, and in a moment of irritation Martha de- 
molished the structure as if it had been a house of cards. 

II 57 
The Woman at the Well 

Jesus delivered a discourse to Nicodemus. He held a 
long and intensely interesting conversation with a Sa- 
maritan woman whose morals were off colour. The old 
ruler was a man of settled convictions, the woman had a 
mind as volatile as the water in her pot. It would be 
interesting to know where John got the story. Did it 
come by way of Samaria or from Jesus to His disciples ? 
We do not know. From those who had little He expected 
little, and always gave much. To the average mind, this 
conversation kindly carried on between the Master and a 
loosely-minded woman is extraordinary. A noted 
I preacher, when asked to preach in a small church in the 
north of London, recently said, ' Why should I preach to 
dozens in that place when I can preach to thousands else- 
Iwhere?' And that about measures the distance between 



HIS MIND AND OTHER MINDS 95 

the Master and His alleged modern prototype. To such a 
man Jesus was wasting His time. We have a name for the 
man or woman who 'wastes' time with such sinners. 
We call them missionaries. To such we give our moral 
support and our old clothes, but we prefer a better 
dressed and a more intellectual type upon which to ex- 
pend our 'superior' energy. 

Jesus was alone by the well at Sychar when the 
woman came to draw water. He was thirsty and asked 
her for a drink. Recognising Him as a Jew, she was 
surprised at the request. The orthodox Pharisee 
would not think of asking a Samaritan for a drink. 
And if her character was known, the ordinary Israelite 
would have walked away to avoid contamination. 
'How is it that you ask meV she said simply. Jesus 
answered her in a parable. He spoke of the living 
water. She misunderstood still, and He went on to 
explain to her simple mind the truth. Then there is 
a break in the narrative. The conversation takes a 
personal turn. He asks her to call her husband. That 
brings out her personal inner life. When she see that 
He knows, she said, 'I perceive that Thou art a prophet.' 

He did not chide her. His tone and manner gave 
her confidence, and she went on in search of truth. 
Her people loved Mount Gerizem, and around it they 
centered their system of worship. Mount Zion was 
the rival of Mount Gerizem. 'Our fathers worshipped 
here,' she said, 'and You say that Jerusalem is the 
place where men ought to worship.' 

The hour cometh 

And is now 

When the true worshippers 

Shall worship the Father 

in spirit and in truth, 
For such doth the Father seek 

to be his worshippers. 
• •••••• 

God is a spirit 

And they that worship him 

Must worship him 

in spirit and in truth. 



96 THE CARPENTER AND HIS KINGDOM 

Comparatively few of His followers have ever quite 
fully grasped Jesus 's method of leading people to the 
Father. He had faith in the truth and was ever content 
to let it do its own work. 

In this conversation — probably the longest recorded 
in the Gospels — we have a new introduction to the 
Master's mind. In it we discover that like God He 
was no respecter of persons. To say that God is a 
Spirit is not to define God but rather to indicate what 
God is not. The note of universality is clear. The 
importance of place, no matter how hallowed, is swept 
away. The Father being a spiritual being, seeks 
worshippers everywhere to worship Him in spirit and 
in truth. The human heart becomes a temple, and 
from it the human spirit goes out in search of the Father, 
irrespective of time or place or circumstance. To this 
woman He revealed the Father, He revealed Himself. 
He told her the nature of God and the nature of worship. 
The disciples when they arrived wondered. The world 
has wondered ever since. This spark of love, this touch 
of kindly intercourse, this recognition of personality 
fanned into a flame the smouldering fire in the heart of a 
woman, and she left her water pots and went off_to 
kindle a flame in the hearts of others. 

To the enthusiasm aroused He responded, and abode 
with them two days. 

T 58 

Jesus and Usury 

{An appended comment) 

Usury had been practised for thousands of years 
before Jesus came. The Jews learnt the art of getting 
some thing for nothing, in Babylon. On the return 
from captivity, Nehemiah made a determined attack 
upon it, and forced all usurers to sign a covenant against 
it. He forced them to release the already mortgaged 
property of the poor — and poverty is the mother of the 



HIS MIND AND OTHER MINDS 97 

mortgage. Solon performed a like service for Greece 
and Julius Caesar copied the Solon legislation for Rome. 
Cicero tells us that Cato being asked what he thought 
of usury, answered the question by asking, 'What do 
you think of murder?' 'If you lend your money,' 
said Augustine, 'to a man from whom you expect more 
than you give — not money alone, but anything else, 
whether it be wheat, wine, oil, or any other article — 
if you expect to receive any more than you gave, you are 
an usurer, and in that respect reprehensible.' 

'Usury,' says Ruskin in Fors Clavigerd, 'includes all 
investments of capital, whatsoever returning dividends, 
as distinguished from labour, wages, or profits. Thus 
any one who works on a railroad as platelayer or 
stoker, has a right to wages for his work; and any 
inspector of wheels or rails has a right to payment for 
such inspection; but idle persons, who have only paid 
£100 towards the road-making, have the right to the 
return of £100 and no more. If they take a farthing 
more, they are usurers. They may take £50 for two 
years, and £25 for four, or £1 for the hundred. But 
the' first farthing they take more than their hundred, 
be it sooner or later, is usury.' 

Ruskin and St. Augustine may be revolutionary in 
matter of business, but they are both correctly inter- 
preting the doctrine of the Kingdom of God as taught 
by Jesus. 

'As long as the Church's doctrine of usury was be- 
lieved, and acted upon,' says W. H. Lecky, 'the arm 
of industry was paralysed, the expansion of commerce 
was arrested, and all the countless blessings that have 
flowed from them, were withheld.' 

That is the business point of view, but the 'countless 
blessings' have not been unalloyed. With the growth 
of usury, grew the social parasites. In 1290 England 
expelled the Jews who had a monopoly of money- 
lending. In the course of time the Jew returned. 
Moneylending became deeply embedded in the social 
structure. Usury, interest, profit, and unearned in- 
crement, became the foundation stones of the entire 



98 THE CARPENTER AND HIS KINGDOM 

structure of the commercial world. Whether the 
tribute to the lender is usury or interest depends upon 
where one lives. Laws relating to it are different in 
different countries. What is interest in one state, 
is usury in another. What became profitable to the 
masters of materials, became law, and what is lawful 
becomes sacred. The result is that we are asked to 
respect not only the law but the result of the law, 
which is a large section of every community who create 
nothing, who do no work and base their claim for re- 
spectability, and titles on the fact that they are immune 
from useful toil. 

In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus tells us to lend 
and not ask back even that which we lend — much less 
usury. 

To interpret Him as endorsing usury is to render 
Him open to the charge of teaching a lower grade of 
morality, than the prevailing codes of either Israel, 
Greece, or Rome ! His most violent critic never accused 
Him of that. Greed and selfishness may prevent us 
from attaining the Sermon on the Mount, but our failure 
is less culpable than our attempt to reduce His teaching 
to absurdity by dragging it down to our low standard! 



CHAPTER IX 

THE MASTER'S MAGNA CHARTA 

11 59 
Basic Principles 

Before the twelve could teach, they had to be taught. 
He had many things to teach them, but they could 
not learn them all at once. The Messiah portrayed 
in the Old Testament, and in the book of Enoch, was 
a wonder worker. He was to redeem Israel, by reform- 
ing the law, and restoring the temple. He was to 
destroy the enemies of Israel and restore prosperity 
to His people. A new national life had been promised. 
John the Baptist and Jesus spoke of 'The Kingdom 
of God.' Did they mean a regenerated Israel in a 
political as well as a religious sense? The disciples 
wondered. There was a thin veil of mist between 
the Master and His disciples. It was still there when 
the Evangelists wrote their books. It is there now as 
we look for Him through the colouration, interpreta- 
tion, and temperament of the writers. Sometimes 
the veil is dense, the figure is a silhouette. At times 
the veil lifts or becomes filmy, and we see more clearly. 
We are not concerned here with textual criticism. 
We are tying to see Him. In order to do that, it is 
more important to weigh the evidence than to court 
witnesses. 

The clearest view we get of Him is when He takes 
the twelve apart and gives them the Magna Charta 
of the New Kingdom. What we call 'the Sermon on 
the Mount' is the new charter. In it they are taught 
the basic principles of life — of life toward God, and 

99 



ioo THE CARPENTER AND HIS KINGDOM 

men and the world. It is not a technical document, 
nor a dogmatic system. It is a series of finger-posts 
pointing the way to God and pure life. 

There are unmistakable signs of the editorial hands, 
even here, but the essence of it is as He gave it. There 
are separations of text from context, interpolations, 
and explanations that do not explain, but as a whole 
it stands intact as a revelation of divine guidance to 
the Way, the Truth, and the Life. 

It is unthinkable that Jesus delivered the sermon 
just as the Evangelists have given it to us. As it stands, 
its delivery would occupy about five minutes. He must 
have talked much longer. John the Baptist must have 
preached for hours, yet his preaching is condensed to a 
few fragments which an ordinary speaker could deliver 
in a few minutes. Questions would naturally be as 
illuminating as the discourse. 



The Sermon on the Mount 
II 60 
The Introduction 

Blessed are you who are poor, for yours is the 
Kingdom of God. 

Blessed are you who hunger now, for you shall 
be satisfied. 

Blessed are you who weep now, for you shall 
laugh. 

Blessed are you when men hate you, and when 
they expel you from among them as an evil 
thing — (on account of the Son of Man). 

Then indeed you may be glad and dance for 
joy, for you may be sure that your reward in 
heaven shall be great— for that is what their 
ancestors did to the prophets. 



THE MASTER'S MAGNA CHARTA 101 

The great majority of critics prefer Matthew's version. 
They are alarmed at the suggestion of Ebionism (ebion — 
poor people) in Luke. Matthew and Luke differ, 
though they both drew from the same source. There 
is no necessity for dogmatism in our choice of records. 
Interpretation with us, as it was with the Evangelists, 
is a matter of temperament. 

Luke or Matthew — Which f 

In Matthew the 'poor' become 'poor in spirit,' 
and hunger becomes 'hungering and thirsting after 
righteousness/ He may be avoiding the inference 
that the Kingdom belonged to the poor because they 
were poor. An idea that could not have been in the 
mind of Jesus. But Luke's record is not improved 
by Matthew's addition. If words have not lost their 
meaning, 'poor in spirit' means, not humility or self- 
abasement, but poverty of character. When a man 
becomes conscious that God is all and he in comparison 
is nothing, he is rich in spirit — not poor. The church 
has consistently rejected the Ebionism of Luke and 
has given us instead the Ebionism of Matthew, which 
expresses itself in a slavish social and spiritual sub- 
serviency and a beggar-whine. 

Jesus did not promise the poor monopoly of the 
Kingdom. He said it was theirs. There was nothing 
else to, which they could make any claim. They were 
poor because they were exploited and robbed. They 
were a majority of the people, they crowded around 
Him. They had hope in Him — they had hope in nothing 
else. The Romans and the Jewish hierarchy bled them 
white — now at last they have a champion who, knowing 
all they had suffered, offers them something to offset 
their poverty — the Kingdom of^God! 

When Jesus said that a camel could as easily go through 
the eye of a needle as a rich man could enter heaven, 
no Evangelist toned it down, but the Commentators did. 



io2 THE CARPENTER AND HIS KINGDOM 

They said, by ' the eye of a needle ' He meant one of the 
gates of Jerusalem! Jesus neither excludes the rich 
from heaven nor gives a monopoly of it to the poor. He 
states a fundamental fact; that it is hard for the rich to 
choose the things of the spirit while for the poor it is at 
least easier. In hungering and thirsting for righteous- 
ness the will to eat and drink is all that is required. 
The food of the spirit is plentiful — while the assurance 
of even a minimum existence is as yet a dream unrealised. 



The Training of the Disciples 

In the introduction to the Sermon He has in mind 
the twelve. He is contrasting the old with the new. 
He is giving them material for their mission. They 
will have to face poverty, in their own lives and in ! 
the lives of others. They will be hated and perhaps 
suffer death, but they are to rejoice and leap for joy | 
that they are counted worthy to follow in the footsteps | 
of the prophets. 

But woe unto you that are rich! for you have 
your comfort in full. Woe unto you that are sated ; 
now! for ye shall be hungry. Woe unto you that i 
laugh! for ye shall mourn. Woe unto you when j 
all men speak well of you ! after the same man- 
ner did they to the false prophets. 

Luke vi. 24-26. 

The woes are the antitheses of the blessings. Luke 
wrote them as he found them. The editorial hand 
could hardly make the rich here 'rich in spirit.' 
Matthew omits them altogether. The introduction 
thus appears to be expressive of an idea that Jesus 
expressed in another connection, — *A man's life con- 
sisteth not in the abundance of the things which 
he possesseth.' True happiness is not with the 
outwardly enviable but in richness of soul. They do 
not tell how to attain the Kingdom, they tell in part 
what it is. For the remainder of the sermon proper, 
Matthew's version is taken as being the more complete 
record. 



THE MASTER'S MAGNA CHARTA 103 

II 61 

The Sermon 

In five antitheses Jesus illustrates the working of the 
spiritual principle and contrasts it with the Jewish code. 

Ye have heard that it was said to the ancients, 
thou shalt not kill, and whosoever killeth, he 
shall be amenable to judgment. 

But I say unto you, Whosoever is angry with 
his brother shall be amenable to judgment. 

Moreover it is said, Whosoever shalt call his 
brother scoundrel shall be amenable to the 
court. But I say unto you, Whosoever calleth 
him simpleton shall be amenable to Gehenna. 

Matthew v. 21-23. 

Wheat and Chaff 

What is there in this section that is new? This: 
Jesus sifts the wheat of the spiritual life from the chaff 
of tradition and legal enactments. He separates that 
which is incidental and transient from that which is 
fundamental and permanent, and applies the result to 
the life of His day. He singles out motives and shows 
their relation to acts. He teaches unity of life by 
emphasising the springs of action and relating the 
thought to the act. The inference His disciples drew 
was that love was the driving force back of all life and 
the lack of it man's sorrow. According to the legal code 
a man could be cited before the court for uttering a 
sneering epithet at his brother man, but for a less offence, 
the spiritual principle made him amenable to Gehenna — 
the smouldering rubbish heap of Hinnom. 

If 62 
Of Impure Thought 

Ye have heard that it was said, Thou shalt not 
commit adultery. 



io 4 THE CARPENTER AND HIS KINGDOM 

But I say unto you, Every one that looketh on 
a woman lustfully hath already committed 
adultery with her in his heart. 

Moreover it is said, Whoso putteth away his 
wife, must give her a certificate of divorce. 

But I say unto you, every one that putteth 
away his wife committeth adultery. 

And whoso married her that was divorced, 
committeth adultery. 

Matthew v. 27-32. 

Jesus is dealing here with the thought behind the 
act. There is no moral difference between the desire 
that lacks only opportunity and the act itself. He is 
not enacting a legal code. He is contrasting the law of 
the spirit with the Eighth Commandment. Matthew, 
editorially adds, 'except for fornication.' Neither Luke 
nor Mark know anything of this limitation and the 
spiritual principle excludes it. The interpolation is 
legalistic. It codifies the principle. 

Divorce 

Jesus explains elsewhere why Moses permitted divorce. 
It was to prevent worse evils. Men's hearts were hard, 
and Moses legislated for conditions as he found them. 
He does not criticise Moses, He enunciates a higher law 
— the law of love. In the days of Moses divorce was a 
man's convenience. Woman appears to be the only 
property he wanted to get rid of. Jesus is not enacting 
another mosaic code. He is preching the unity of life 
and interpreting the higher law which obviates the 
necessity of a barbed wire fence of legal enactments. 
In the new law of love women acquire a new status, 
They become equals and independent. He does not 
enact a new divorce law. He holds the ideal. Men 
have tried to make the Sermon on the Mount a codicil 
to the will of Moses, but the attempts have always failed. 
Because of the hardness of men's heart spolitical creeds 
and constitutions are still mosaic and when put in paral- 



THE MASTER'S MAGNA CHARTA 105 

j lei columns with the Sermon on the Mount look devoid 

I of spiritual content. At best the justice in them is a 

I balanced selfishness. In the spiritual constitution of the 

i new society self is eliminated and men desire the good 

because it is good and for no other reason. Legislation 

on divorce may be as necessary now as it was in the days 

of Moses. Jesus shows the better way. 

If 63 

Untruthfulness and the Law against Perjury 

Again ye have heard that it was said to the 
ancients, Forswear not thyself, but perform 
thine oaths to the Lord. 

But I say unto you, Swear not at all: Neither 
by heaven, for it is God's throne. 

Nor by the earth, for it is his footstool. 

Nor by Jerusalem, for it is the city of the great 
King; 

Neither by thy head, for thou canst not make 
one hair white or black. 

But let your yea be yea and your nay be nay. 

What exceedeth this is from the Evil One. 

Matthew v. 33-37. 

Casuistry and Lying 

There was a variety of ways in which the law against 
false swearing or perjury could be evaded. The more 
sacred the name attached to an affirmation of veracity 
of innocence the more credence it was expected to receive. 
If a man sold an ass and the buyer discovered later that 
it was defective, and complained, the seller would swear 
with uplifted hand that it was whole and without blem- 
ish when he sold it. He would use the word that he 
thought would most impress the duped buyer — the 
Temple, Jerusalem, the Earth, or Jehovah Himself. 
Jesus is here announcing the philosophy of the spirit 
which desires truth for its own sake. He is condemning 
casuistic mendacity, whether in social intercourse or 



106 THE CARPENTER AND HIS KINGDOM 

commercial dealings, and pointing out that the life of 
God in the soul obviates the necessity of a lying circum- 
locution. This section has a special meaning for modern 
secret diplomacy and commercial correspondence — and 
particularly for our brazen untruthfulness in advertising. 
If politics and business would cease common lying for 
one week, the effect would precipitate a revolution the 
like which the world has never seen. There is a sidelight 
here on 'blessed are ye poor.' The less we possess the 
less we have to lie about. A lie is a lie whether it is 
acted, lived, written, or told, and the only law that can 
successfully deal with it is the law of the Kingdom in 
the heart. 

Non-resistance and the Limitation of Retaliation 

Ye have heard that it was said, an eye (only) 
for an eye. 
And a tooth (only) for a tooth. 
But I say unto you, resist not the violent. 
To him that smiteth thee on the one cheek, 
offer also the other. 

And if any would sue thee and take thy cloak, 
let him have thy tunic as well. 

And whoso would impress thee for one mile 
go with him two. 

Give to him that asketh, and from him that 
would borrow turn not away. 

So whatsoever ye would that men should do 
unto you, do even so unto them. 

Matthew v. 38-39. 
Luke vi. 27. 
Matthew v. 40-41. 
Matthew vii. 12. 

Facts and Theories 
Six basic qualities of life are enunciated here. Of all 



THE MASTER'S MAGNA CHARTA 107 

the principles laid down by Jesus, the first is the least 
understood and the last is the least practised. One is 
the principle of non-resistance and the other is the 
golden rule. In them lies the root of the matter. In a 
world war the question of non-resistance is highly accen- 
tuated. Nobody in Europe at this moment is beyond 
the possibility of death from violence. Confronted with 
a fact our theories are in the crucible. As a nation we 
are forced to choose between annihilation or vassalage 
and resistance. The individual is also driven to make a 
choice between acquiescence in the national will and 
resistance. The determining factor in the choice of the 
nation is partly a love of ancient landmarks and partly 
fear of subservience to a brutal foreign power. The 
determining factor in the choice of the individual is the 
ethical consideration involved in resisting the violent 
and returning evil for evil. The national will makes 
provision for the individual conscience. The provision 
has limitations. It may be ethical in intent and unethical 
in execution. The national will when confronted with 
national extinction gives scant attention to individual 
considerations. The non-resistent is confronted with a 
real difficulty. He has to decide the difference between 
resisting the national will and refusing to resist a foreign 
invader. In the face of such difficulty it seems unwise 
to dogmatise overmuch. There is in all of us a deep- 
rooted conviction, however, that war is a violation of 
both the letter and spirit of the Sermon on the Mount. 
All nations at war have for the moment shelved it. 
We seem to have descended to a lower ethical plane. 
We cannot reconcile human slaughter with the character 
of Jesus and the love of God. On the other hand, we 
cannot believe that God is detached or that He has 
abandoned men. God will not rend the heavens and 
come down. We have the prerogative of choice and at 
present we seem to have chosen not the highest but the 
lesser of two evils. Whatever the ultimate truth may 
be for a nation there can be no question about the intent 
of the words of Jesus as they relate to the individual. 



io8 THE CARPENTER AND HIS KINGDOM 

Non-Resistance 

Personal insults and violence towards the person 
are not to be resisted. Personal non-resistance is the 
better policy even if it utterly lacked an ethical principle. 
The question of the smitten cheek covers the category 
of personal insult. It is the question of war reduced 
to the belligerency of two. It is a more severe test of 
the spirit than war is. It comes nearer home. By 
the law of the Kingdom, retaliation is outlawed, revenge 
has no place. It is assumed here, of course, that non- 
resistance is determined by a principle and not by 
cowardice. 

A Pyramid on its Apex 

Some of our great religious teachers have recently 
told us that this injunction cannot be carried out, 
'without upsetting the whole basis of society.' That 
is exactly what Jesus intended to do. Upset the basis 
of society as He found it and as it exists to-day. In 
apostolic times it was charged against the apostles 
that they were ' turning the world upside down.' Un- 
happily they did not succeed, but from the standpoint 
of Jesus and His followers until it is turned upside down 
it will never be right side up! It is like a pyramid on 
its apex and must be thrown over on its base. It can 
only be done by a love that exceeds the love of either 
ancient or modern Pharisees. There is no ethical dif- 
ference between resisting an invading host and resisting 
a staggering blow to our personal vanity or our alleged 
dignity. We can choose the plane on which we live. 
We can prefer the methods of the Kaiser to the methods 
of Jesus, but they are not interchangeable. The ideals 
rose still higher, when Jesus tells them that when a man 
to whom they are indebted takes away the outer coat — 
which the law permits — that they are to offer also the 
inner tunic, which the law forbids. That strikes deeper 
at the roots of existence. If a man forces one to accom- 
pany him one mile, he is to offer to travel an extra 



THE MASTER'S MAGNA CHARTA 109 

one, because only in the second mile can he demonstrate 
that he belongs to the Kingdom. We are to give until 
there is nothing left, lend until there is nothing left 
to borrow. Hard sayings to those who have anything 
either to give or lend, but they are sayings of One who 
Himself had absolutely nothing to give but love. Per- 
haps that is the normal condition of those who accept 
the new law as a rule of life — blessed are ye poor, for 
yours is the Kingdom of God. 

The Kingdom in Action 

These basic values rise still higher in the last clause. 
When the heart is pure, the self-life reduced to a mini- 
mum and the driving force is disinterested love — 
even then negation misses the mark. The law of 
the Kingdom is a positive force. It does not hang 
around awaiting emergencies, it goes out to borrow 
trouble, to lend love, to share its comforts, and walk 
extra miles. 'Whatsoever ye would that men 
should do to you do ye even so to them' — don't 
wait for them as they wait for you! That's the old 
way. Go out and seek them! It takes love and 
courage to do that, but anything less falls short of the 
Kingdom. 



If 65 

Kindness — Limited and Unlimited 

Ye have heard that it was said, Love thy 
neighbour and hate thine enemy. 

But I say unto you, Love your enemies, and 
pray for them that persecute you; 

That ye may be the sons of your Father in 
heaven. For he maketh his sun to rise on both 
wicked and good. 

And the rain to fall on just and unjust. 

For if ye love them that love you, what credit 
have ye? 



no THE CARPENTER AND HIS KINGDOM 

Do not the very tax-gatherers the same? 

And if ye say, 'God be with you' to your breth- 
ren only, what credit have ye? 

Do not the very Gentiles the same? 

But love your enemies, and do good and lend 
without hope of return, 

And your reward shall be great, and ye shall 
be the Sons of the Highest; 

For he is kind even to the unthankful and the 
wicked. 

Ye therefore shall be complete in goodness, 
As your Father in heaven is complete. 

Matthew v. 43-45 and 48. 
Luke vi. 35. 

In some of the Psalms (109 for instance), we have 
the only instances in which hatred of an enemy finds 
sanction in Hebrew literature or law. Even there it 
is a poetic rhapsody to emphasise the distinction between 
virtue and vice. Hatred of an enemy was assumed, as it 
is with us, but it was nowhere commanded. Jesus here 
is employing the Jewish and oriental method of teaching 
by contrast just as He was when He seemed, or seems 
to our Western matter-of-fact standard of judgment, to 
be inculcating hatred of kindred, 'father, mother, wife, 
children, brethren, and sisters,' when He was merely 
emphasising by contrast the more fundamental claims of 
the Kingdom. 

Courtesy 

To greet the brethren with kindly salutation ' Shalom ! ' 
was a courtesy of which they had no monopoly. The 
Gentiles were as courteous to each other. 

To say 'Shalom* (peace) to those who persecuted 
them and despitefully used them, was a demonstration 
of that which distinguished the Kingdom from the 
world. Even then, if done in a perfunctory manner, 
it was without commendation or merit. To do good, 
to give, to lend without hope of return in kind or interest, 



THE MASTER'S MAGNA CHARTA in 

to do it because it was good to do, because it was the 
natural overflowing of a full heart, was an evidence that 
they were sons of the Highest. 

And the doing would become a habit and that habit 
would become a destiny, and their destiny was nothing 
short of the completeness with which they contem- 
plated the Father in heaven. Such were the methods 
of culture, such was the ultimate belief of the charmed 
circle of friends through which the water of life would 
overflow the earth. The kindheartedness of thieves, 
thugs, and harlots is proverbial — as proverbial as the 
Pharisaism of religious leaders. For the former Jesus 
had the tenderest pity, for the latter he had extreme 
scorn. The tax-gatherer's standard of love is not 
sufficient, however. The Kingdom's credential is the 
higher love, the love that can love the unlovely and 
the unloving, that can pray for them and forgive them; 
a love which in essence is of the same texture as the love 
of God. 



11 66 

Spiritual Eclipse 

Just now we are breaking under the strain of the 
test. We are loving our enemies by gun and sword, 
by liquid fire and asphyxiating gas. Our enemy in 
the name of God, is doing the same to us. The only 
regret that either of us possess is the regret that the 
machinery of death cannot keep pace with the will 
to kill. The world is suffering from aberration of the 
mind, and an almost total eclipse of ethical consideration. 
It is a temporary condition. Those who are left will 
recover. Meantime there stands the eternal standard 
which demands a love that exceeds the love of the 
unethical, and the unmoral elements of society, that lay 
claim to no spiritual heritage or connection whatever. 



ii2 THE CARPENTER AND HIS KINGDOM 

Worship: True and False 
(First Anthithesis) 
Almsgiving 

Take heed of your acts of piety, that ye do 
them not before men to be seen of them, other- 
wise ye have no reward with your Father in 
heaven. 

Thus when thou art giving alms, make not a 
flourish of trumpets as do the hypocrites in the 
synagogue and on the streets. That ye may be 
honoured of men. Of a truth I say unto you 
that they have their receipt in full. 

But thou when thou art giving alms, let not 
thy left hand know what they right hand is do- 
ing, that thine alms may be in secret; and thy 
Father which seeth in secret shall recompense 
thee. 

Matthew vi. 2-4. 

(Second Antithesis) 

Prayer 

And when ye are praying be not like the hypo- 
crites; for they love to stand and pray in the 
synagogues and on the street corners that they 
may be seen of men. 

Of a truth I say unto you that they have their 
reward in full. 

But thou when thou prayest, enter into the 
inner room and shut the door and pray in secret 
to thy Father, and thy Father which seeth in 
secret shall recompense thee. 

Matthew vi. 5. 

(Third Antithesis) 

Fasting 

But when thou are fasting be not like the 
hypocrites wry faced, for they disfigure their 



THE MASTER'S MAGNA CHARTA 113 

faces that they may figure as fasting before men. 
Of a truth I say unto you they have their reward 
in full. But when thou art fasting annoint thy 
head and wash thy face that thou appear not 
as a faster unto men, but unto thy Father (that 
is in secret) and thy Father (that seeth in secret) 
shall recompense thee. 

Matthew vi. 16-18. 



1f 67 
Church Parades 

In this section we have three antitheses and a prin- 
ciple. The principle is that worship of God must be 
performed in spirit and in truth — as unto God and 
not unto men. Whatever outward show the people 
of that day were prone to effect in worship, Jesus draws 
a distinction between it and the attitude of the heart. 
It is not quite clear what it is, but it was probably some- 
thing like our full dress parades on Sundays. Attitude 
of the heart alone merits God's reward. Fine clothes, 
pre-empted front pews and all the pomp and vulgar 
display of wealth represented in jewellery, millinery, and 
costly attire, may harmonise with the church furniture 
and minister to the aesthetic sense, but it is not worship. 
Man looketh upon the outward appearance, and we take 
scrupulous care that he has a weekly view at the best 
we have. God may be interested in these things, but 
He cannot be pleased with a display of clothes that 
subjects the poor to such a violent contrast that they 
are conspicuous by their absence in the house of prayer. 

The law of the Kingdom is not based on a quid pro 
quo (the giving of one thing for another of equal value) 
arrangement. Religion is not stock-broking nor is 
it an investment. It is not marketable. God does 
not reward, but to worship for gain is the negation of 
religion. 



ii 4 THE CARPENTER AND HIS KINGDOM 

1 Would that I could blot out heaven 
And quench hell, 
That men might love God 
For His own sake.' 

Our Benevolent Feudalism 

The first antithesis is a metaphor illustrating right 
and wrong methods of giving alms. 'A flourish of 
trumpets,' is a picture of a hypocrite calling attention 
to himself. We do it more subtly and on a larger 
scale. Our trumpets are newspapers and our alms 
are universities, libraries, church windows and organs, 
and occasionally a cathedral. A steel merchant gets 
a prohibitive tariff on his commodity, and works thous- 
ands of men fourteen hours a day and seven days a week 
on starvation wages until he amasses millions. Then he 
gives it back, not to the workers, but to the more intelli- 
gent portion of the community in the form of libraries. 

A brewer succeeds in his business beyond his dreams 
and with his profits builds a cathedral. When these 
trumpets are blown we all stand aghast with our hands 
extended for what we receive are devoutly thankful. 
Jesus said, 'I say unto you they have their reward 
in full.' A critic has translated that as follows — 
'they have their receipt in full,' which may mean that 
we give them honour while those coming after us and 
seeing the ethical relation of things more clearly will 
be ashamed of the heritage of such alms. Both in 
almsgiving and in evangelisation we exploit the recipients 
of our service. Lacking faith in God to provide funds, 
we hire literary men to write up harrowing details of 
poverty, destitution, and neglect. The worse the case 
the better for the appeals for funds. When a sinner 
changes his course we do the same with him. We omit 
the details in print but we whisper them around and hope 
thereby to increase sympathy for our work and inciden- 
tally to raise the estimate of our own value as winners of 
souls. 



THE MASTER'S MAGNA CHARTA 115 

1F 68 

How the Right Hand informs the Left 

The rarest thing in religious life is a right hand that 
does not appoint a committee to inform the left of 
its philanthropy. Almsgiving is a passing phase of 
civilisation. It is degrading, in large measure, both 
to the giver and the given. When his charter becomes 
the law of life there will be no almsgiving — nor will 
there be any need of a church. 

The second antithesis concerns right and wrong 
methods of prayer. The religious hypocrite displayed 
his religious wares in the open. The object was to be 
seen of men. Men gave him a certain kind of reverence. 
That was his 'receipt in full,' but the Father rewarded 
him on the plane of his motive. It was low, and the 
reward was correspondingly low. Prayer is not a relig- 
ious mendicancy. It is not a beggar whine for a few 
miserable gratuities. 

Prayer an Atmosphere 

Prayer is an attitude. It is an atmosphere. It is 
communion — the attitude of a child toward a father, an 
atmosphere of reverence and love, a communion of the 
spirit with the over-spirit — God. The prayer of the 
right motive and right atmosphere is rewarded by cul- 
ture of spirit, by clearness of vision, by divine assurance, 
divine communion. The soul that thus communes with 
God does not ask for things. It does not need to do so. 
The Father knows and supplies. This was the method 
of Jesus. This is what He taught His followers. 

\ 69 

The Temple of the Body 

The third antithesis concerns true and false fasting. 
Jesus was not as strict in fasting as John the Baptist 



n6 THE CARPENTER AND HIS KINGDOM 

was, but he practised it and taught its value. He 
laid down no rules for its observance. He stated a 
principle and left it to the individual to decide how and 
when he should bring his body under control so that 
the physical condition would be a help and not a hin- 
drance to the spirit. The body also is spiritual. Pam- 
pered, glutted, and sated, it becomes logy, flaccid, and 
inert. It can be so overcrowded with food as to leave 
no room for the spirit. 'Don't fast as do these long- 
faced hypocrites,' Jesus says. He urges them and 
us to fast as we pray and as we give alms. In the heart, 
impelled by a sacred motive as unto the Father. If we 
perform a dumb show we have our reward in the show — 
a hollow approbation by hollow-minded men. Out of 
this principle the church forged a hard, iron-bound creed. 
It instituted an intensive fasting campaign of six weeks 
and banished by inference the whole question for the 
rest of the year. 

The Principle Applied 

Judge not, that ye be not judged; for with 
what judgment ye judge he shall be judged 
(and in what measure ye measure out, it shall 
be measured back to you). 

But why regardest thou the splinter in thy 
brother's eye, but consider thou not the beam 
in thine own eye? 

Or wilt thou say to thy brother, let me re- 
move the splinter from thine eye, and lo there 
is a beam in thine own eye? 

Hypocrite, remove first the beam from thine 
own eye and then thou shalt see clearly to remove 
the splinter from thy brother's eye. 

II 71 
How to Judge 

When Jesus whipped the money changers from the 
temple it may be presumed that He was not only judging 



THE MASTER'S MAGNA CHARTA 117 

them but executing judgment. He judged them as 
everybody did, by their fruits. In view of that incident 
the absolute statement is subject to qualifications. The 
injunction is another version of the golden rule. We are 
to judge with the judgment that we would like to be 
judged and to the man who is about to judge us we would 
like to say: 'Before you judge me, get the motives. 
Don't judge me by appearance, or hearsay, or rumour. 
Make some allowance for my individual point of view. 
Reserve your judgment until you know all the facts, 
and even then temper it with mercy and kindness. 
Put yourself in my place and as you judge remember 
that my final judge is God.' What is forbidden is not 
judgment, but unfair judgment and the context shows 
that before we judge another we must judge ourselves. 
Before we can remove the splinter from a brother's eye 
we must remove the beam from our own. 

This is the Master's plea for the sinner. The man 
who has succumbed to temptation, and was then, as 
he is now subjected to ostracism and humiliation by the 
self-righteous. 

A good tree cannot bear bad fruit, nor a rotten 
tree produce good fruit. 

Either make the tree good and its fruit good, 
or make the tree rotten and its fruit rotten. 

The good man from his good store bringeth 
forth good things, and the evil man from his 
evil store bringeth forth evil things. 

The power of the Kingdom is in the heart. All 
reform must begin there. The fruit of the pure heart 
is loving kindness, tender mercy, long suffering, fair 
play, and consideration. The fruit of the other kind is 
malice, jealousy, hatred, and censoriousness. When the 
human heart is the garden of God there will be no doubt 
about the flowers and fruit. 



u8 THE CARPENTER AND HIS KINGDOM 

1f 72 

Talk and Action 

And why call ye me Lord, Lord and do not 
the things which I say? 

A Parable in Illustration 

Every one that heareth my words and doeth 
them shall be likened to a wise man that built 
his house upon a rock. 

The rain poured down, the floods came, the 
winds blew, and beat upon that house, and it 
fell not; for it was founded on the rock. 

And every one that heareth my words and 
doeth them not shall be likened to a foolish 
man that built his house on the sand. 

The rain poured down, the floods came, the 
winds blew and beat upon that house, and it 
fell, and the fall thereof was great. 

Heresy and Truth 

The heresy which has corrupted the church in all 
ages is not theological but moral — it is saying one thing 
and doing another. We are still saying, 'Lord, Lord,' 
and on mere profession we have built a pious super- 
structure which, like the house built upon the sand, must 
ultimately be swept away. There is but one sure foun- 
dation. It is the truth of His charter, held, not merely 
as an intellectual concept but as a rule of life. Not 
something that can be put on and taken off as a gar- 
ment, but something woven into the very texture of 
character. 

If 73 
The Postlude 

And it came to pass when Jesus had finished these 
sayings, the crowds were amazed at His teaching; for 



THE MASTER'S MAGNA CHARTA 119 

His way of teaching them was as one that has authority, 
and not as their scribes. 

He begins with the twelve and ends with the multi- 
tude. The discrepancy in the record, if there is one, is 
immaterial. Crowds followed Him everywhere. We get 
but an infinitesimal part of what He said, but we get 
the fundamentals — we get the charter. The authority 
that astounded them was inherent in His personality. 
It was not that He said anything new, but that His 
words were living things and conveyed life. 

IF 74 

Review of the Charter 

Spiritual Exploration 

Primarily the discourse was for the twelve. It was 
their seminary course. If the multitude did not get it 
at first hand they got it later. Its ultimate destination 
was the world. |In the introduction He announces that 
happiness is possible to those who suffer. The condition 
of happiness is in character. There is a new exploration 
of the continent of God's grace. New discoveries are 
made. New possibilities emphasised. He congratulates 
the poor. The Kingdom is theirs in a special sense. The 
rich are not excluded but they are not to be envied. 
They are accepted for what they are, not for what 
they possess. He that accepts the Kingdom is rich. 
He that rejects it is poor. The false prophets were 
honoured of men. The true prophet will be rejected of 
men, but he will be honoured of God. The evil thought 
is as criminal as the evil deed. The law of the Kingdom 
is summed up in a word — love. 

How the Law Works 

When love to God and love to man dominates the 
heart, the tongue will utter no sneer, it will not accuse, 



i2o THE CARPENTER AND HIS KINGDOM 

its speech will be plain and clean. The old regime per- 
mitted divorce because men's hearts were hard. The 
new law lifting men out of the dominion of the material 
sense will obviate the necessity that Moses was forced 
to concede. The old Torah had failed. The new prin- 
ciple was to be put into force. Personal violence was 
not to be resisted. It was to be met with love, and love 
would conquer. The casuistry and trickery of holy 
phrases was to give place to a plain yes or no. Those 
who had the real spirit of the new law could test it by 
their willingness to lend, to give away, to oblige, to 
forgive, to love an enemy, to pray for persecutors. Son- 
ship was to be proven by simplicity of life. To desire 
little makes poverty equal to riches and no court could 
levy a tax on spiritual wealth. 

If 75 
Unity of Life in God 

The new idea of prayer was communion. That is a 
matter, not of standing at the street corners with folded 
hands, or in the temple either — it was a matter of the 
heart and it must be performed without ostentation. 
Current types of piety are contrasted with the new 
principle of loving duty to God. Good deeds are to be 
done quietly, modestly, and in secret. The new life was 
to be exemplified by preferring one another, by the 
elimination of selfish desires and personal ambitions. 
By these means the old nature was changed and the new 
tinaugurated. Unity of life was perfected by the spiri- 
ual union of the soul with God and when the nexus 
was complete they would stand in their new relation 
like the house that was built on the rock. The foundation 
was firm and solid. The superstructure could not be 
shaken. When these sayings had sunk deep into their 
hearts and they had woven it into the fibre of their per- 
sonalities, they went out to give the world the most 
complete and efficient remedy for world weariness, dis- 
traction, poverty, misery, and sin that the race has ever 



THE MASTER'S MAGNA CHARTA 121 

known. To the dullest existence the door of heaven 
opens and light comes forth. 

This, then, is the Master's Magna Charta. A series 
of new requirements for the spiritual life that were set 
against the old Torah. It is not a new decalogue in the 
legal sense. It is a new interpretation of life. 



11 76 
The Faith of a Roman Soldier 

An appended incident 

And He entered into Capernaum. And a certain 
Centurion had a slave that was dear to him, who was 
sick and at the point of death. And when he heard 
about Jesus he sent Elders of the Jews unto Him, asking 
Him to come and heal his slave. And these came to 
Jesus and besought him earnestly, saying that the man 
was worthy that He should do this for him, for he loveth 
our nation and himself hath built the synagogue for us, 
and Jesus went with them. But when He was already 
not far from the house, the centurion sent friends, to 
say to Him, My Lord, take no trouble; for I am not of 
dignity that Thou shouldest enter beneath my roof. 
For this reason also I did not deem myself worthy to 
come to thee in person — but give direction by a word 
and my servant shall be healed. For I too am a man 
ranked under authority, having soldiers under me, and 
I say to one go, and he goeth, and to another come, and 
he cometh, and to my slave do this and he doeth it. 

And when Jesus heard this He marvelled at him, 
and turned and said to the crowd that followed Him: 
4 1 tell you I have not seen so great faith, not even 
in Israel.' 



Now when the messenger had returned home they 
found the slave convalescent. 



i22 THE CARPENTER AND HIS KINGDOM 

The first exemplification of the working of the new 
principle comes not from a Jewish but a Pagan source. 
The incident is striking in the extreme. He had found 
faith in Israel, He had found followers, but here was an 
unattached outsider — an officer of a foreign legion whose 
life — lived up to the light that was in him — is pointed out 
as an example to the disciples and the multitude. He 
had built a synagogue, in which Jesus undoubtedly- 
preached the good news of God, later. His child-like 
faith in the power and kindness of Jesus was but one 
side of the picture. His love for his slave was the other. 
He considered himself of no reputation and refused to 
intrude. 



11 77 

The Highest Faith 

Ecclesiastical cirtics have shelved this friend in a 
sort of spiritual Chiltern Hundreds. They call him a 
'disciple of the gate.' But as one who loved his fellow 
men, the Master wrote his name large in the society of 
friends. The comprehensiveness of the Kingdom is epit- 
omised and elucidated in this incident as in no other 
of the Gospels. Abraham Lincoln once said that if he 
ever found a church whose basis of fellowship was love 
to God and one's neighbour, he would join it. He 
never joined a church, but with the Roman Centurion 
he was a type of the Kingdon. 

The Essence of Prayer 

When ye pray, do not repeat the same words 
over again as do the Gentiles, who imagine that 
a multitude of words assures them a hearing. 
Do not imitate them. God your Father know- 
eth your needs before you ask them of Him. 

Matthew vi. 9-13. 



THE MASTER'S MAGNA CHARTA 123 

Our Father which art in heaven, 

Hallowed be thy name, 

Thy kingdom come, 

Thy will be done, 

As in heaven, so on the earth, 

Give us this day our daily bread, 

And forgive us our debts, 

As we also have forgiven our debtors, 

And bring us not into temptation, 

But deliver us from evil. 

After this manner, therefore, let your prayer 
be offered. 



II 78 
Reality in Prayer 

In form and essence this is the pattern prayer! The 
introduction is a warning against mistaking a rush of 
words to the face for the genuine emotion of the heart. 
In substance He enjoins them and us not to stutter and 
babble and heartlessly repeat mere words over and over. 
It is an assurance also that prayer is not giving God 
information. He knows all about it. 

It is very interesting to know how it contrasted with 
the religious standards ot Judaism. It is infinitely more 
interesting to find out how it accords with ours. Let us 
analyse it. 

Our Father 

That means all of us. It includes the Centurion and 
John the Baptist, the woman taken in sin, Paul, John, 
the thief on the cross, Judas Iscariot, St Francis of Assissi, 
George Fox, and Henry the Eighth! It is all inclusive, 
as broad as the expanse of the heavens, as wide as the 
sea, as limitless as the air ! Man can pre-empt the earth 
and the fruit thereof — he can own the cattle on a thou- 



i2 4 THE CARPENTER AND HIS KINGDOM 

sand hills and the hills too, but no man nor set of men 
can monopolise the Father. What a beautiful thought! 

Which art in Heavem 

Jesus taught no doctrine which modern science has 
discounted or set aside. The Jewish conception of 
heaven was based on the idea that the Earth was flat. 
They believed in a plurality of heavens which to them 
were inhabited by spirits good and evil. Of heaven 
Jesus spoke with great reserve. He did not define it. 
He did not say whether it was a place or a condition. 
In the model prayer He undoubtedly speaks of it as 
that spirit world beyond the mists of the life that now 
is — beyond the jar and discord of the things of sense 
and flesh. 

Hallowed be Thy Name 

The name of the supreme being had many forms. 
By whatever name He was called throughout the long 
history of Israel, the name was the most sacred on the 
tongue of men. The word 'Father' was not original 
with Jesus, but He gave it a new meaning and made 
reverence for it an important element in spiritual 
worship. 

Thy Kingdon come, Thy will be done. As in heaven, so 
on the earth 

The harmony of the world beyond is assumed. There 
spirits cease from striving and act in harmony, co- 
operation and peace here as hereafter. As popularly 
understood it has meant more of a devout resignation 
to an inevitable decree than a desire to see the will of 
the Highest operating in love among the children of men. 

In the sense in which He uses the phrase it has a 
positive force and cosmic application. It is the desire 
which fulfils itself. The will of God frustrated by the 
selfishness, sloth, and greed of man. Nehemiah, like 
the petitioner, asks for the elimination of these 'over 
against his own house.' It is a prayer .for the substi- 



THE MASTER'S MAGNA CHARTA 125 

tution of the divine for the human will in furthering the 
objects of the Kingdom. The object of the Kingdom is 
the reign of disinterested love. 

1 79 
Bread for the Body 

Anti-Ebionism gives this phrase a mystical meaning. 
To the confortable comforters of the breadless it could 
mean nothing else. How foolish it would be to ask 
God for that of which they have enough in store for years 
to come! To the vast majority of the human race it 
means exactly what it says. For them there is no 
assurance in civilisation of to-morrow's bread. In one 
case to pray for bread that sustains the body would be 
foolish, while for starving people to pray for spiritual food 
would be a mockery. We cannot read into the words an 
economic system, nor can we twist them out of their 
meaning in order to sustain a theological theory. He 
has spoken at length of the needs of the spirit. He is 
now linking up to the thought of God the needs of the 
body. The words are entirely in keeping with His 
thought and attitude toward the poor. The earth and 
the fullness thereof is the Lord's. There is enough for 
all. Production and distribution must be correlated. 
They must be of a piece with the will of God and the 
unity of life. It is not implied that bread will drop 
from the skies but that the social system shall be ethical 
and spiritual. If God is our Father and men our 
brothers, there should be no difficulty. There is, 
however, but it is in the practice — not in the theory. 
Here vain repetition are not only rewardless but blas- 
phemy. 

T 80 

Forgiving Debts 

And forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors 

A strange comment on this phrase is the fact that 
the best known Christian Evangelist of modern times 



i26 THE CARPENTER AND HIS KINGDOM 

is considered the best collector of bad debts in America. 
For that reason he is financially supported in generous 
manner by the Christian business men. He himself 
has no debts, for his business as an evangelist has made 
him a very rich man. His converts are the nomadic 
poor to whom moving is easier than payment and to 
whom life is a rather precarious matter of hand-to- 
mouth existence. When converted they pay up the 
bad debts of lean years, and that is a good thing. What 
is good business, however, may not be good Christianity. 
It is easy to forgive an insult or an injury that costs 
nothing more than a generous thought. When the 
forgiveness of others affects our treasury department it 
becomes a severe test of the spiritual nature. No 
limitation is appended to the request for bread. For the 
Father's forgiveness we make our own stipulation. 'As 
weliave forgiven others.' To the petitioner who thinks, 
the condition is heart-searching, it goes to the root of 
things. We pray that His will be done. His will is 
that we forgive others. 'Bread' and 'debts' are words 
of vital interest in the vocabulary of the poor. There is 
an affinity between them that cannot be explained away. 
God's forgiveness means unity, harmony, and peace. 
We get that from Him by giving it to the measure of our 
ability to others. 



1T 81 
Temptation 

And bring us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil 

The sayings of Jesus are full of antitheses — one 
saying set over against another to bring out the meaning 
by contrast and comparison. We may say of this 
clause as Peter said about some of the sayings of Paul. 
'It is hard to understand.' But stating the difficulty is 
inot solving the problem. God does not play with us as 



fTHE MASTER'S MAGNA CHARTA 127 

a cat plays with a mouse. He knows our nature. 
It is frail. But how frail or how strong it is we can only 
know by temptation. Innocence may be a flabby, 
innocuous thing, until it goes into the gymnasium and 
has its fibre exercised and tested. If it stands the 
test it becomes virtue. The gymnasium is temptation. 
The paraphernalia is the desires of our lower nature. 
Should we then ask to be kept from such a test? yes, 
if we feel we are not equal to the strain. If it is possible, 
Jesus prayed, 'let this cup pass from me.' To be kept 
from evil is only the other half of the antithesis, it is 
another way of saying the same thing. One is the 
process, the other is the result. It matters little whether 
the translation be 'evil' or 'evil one,' the power that 
destroys the spiritual life is the same. Half the difficulty 
in understanding the passage is overcome when we 
interpret it subjectively. 'Our Father, suffer us not 
to be tempted to the breaking point and preserve us from 
the evil that blunts the fine edge of our spiritual per- 
ceptions.' The doxology at the end of the prayer was 
added in the earliest of the churches, but was not in 
the original. 



Review of the Pattern Prayer 

This prayer is the soul at worship — breathing out 
to the Father what has been learned from the great 
charter. The Fatherhood of God, the brotherhood 
of men, the unity of life, the basic values, the relation 
to God, the relation to our neighbours, the dependence 
of the individual, the conditions of peace amid world 
cares. It is not a dogmatic ritual; it is a pattern, a 
model. 'After this manner' is the injunction, and it 
is well to keep in mind that while it embraces the fun- 
damentals of spiritual desire it is primarily designed 
for beginners. They were beginning to find difficulty 
in expression, and it was only when they learned that 
John the Baptist had given his disciples a form of 
prayer that they requested Jesus to give them one also. 



i28 THE CARPENTER AND HIS KINGDOM 

1f 82 
The ABC of Prayer 

He gave them the framework, an outline, a foun- 
dation; their individual spiritual needs would suggest 
the details and the superstructure. In after years they 
would look back upon it as the first letters in the alphabet 
of free spiritual worship. We find no record of the 
use to which it was put, either while He yet was with 
them or after He had gone. The child mind in religion 
is like the child mind in the family. It asks for things; 
it is dimly conscious that some degree of reverence is 
due to the parent and the discipline of relation is some- 
thing it has frequently to be reminded of. As the mind 
develops the relationship is assumed, and words become 
unnecessary. 'When I became a man,' Paul says, 'I 
put away childish things.' The immature mind in 
religion has more zeal than wisdom. The forms of 
speech do not keep pace with the imagination. It asks 
and asks amiss because the nature of the divine is but 
dimly revealed. As the experience trains the faculties, and 
communion attunes the soul, the petitioner ceases to ask 
the Father to set aside the laws of nature but seeks rather 
to know His will and do it gladly, and without hope of 
reward. As the soul grows, prayer changes in form. 
It changes its vocabulary. It communes in soliloquy, 
in contemplation. It begins to understand the meaning 
of things eternal. 

The form was the point of departure. He Himself 
was ultimate form and substance. His life as it was 
lived before them was the very essence of prayer. 



CHAPTER X 

If 83 

The Kingdom of God 

Jesus had a name for the body of truth He taught. 
He called it 'the Kingdom of God.' He had a name 
for Himself. He called Himself 'The Son of Man.' 
He had a name for His followers. He called them 
'friends.' I call you not servants but friends. 

The Philosophy of the Spirit 

With Jesus the word 'Kingdom' acquired a new 
meaning. The people around Him were not unfamiliar 
with the name. The Jews had been taught to look 
for a new order. It was now in their midst but there 
were few who had eyes to see it. Jesus was not merely 
a preacher. He was a teacher. His preaching was 
dynamic. His teaching was constructive. There are 
two kinds of love mentioned in the Gospels, one has 
a reciprocal relation — an axe to grind. The other 
loves the object, simply because the object is intrinsi- 
cally lovely and lovable. In the Kingdom the nobler 
love reigned. Its object was the Father. To love 
the good because it is good, the truth because it is 
true, the beautiful because it is beautiful, is the 
philosophy of the spirit. The Kingdom was a spiritual 
society of friends. Love to God, loyalty to the Son 
of Man, love of the friends, loving service and self- 
sacrifice, were the badges of citizenship in the new 
Kingdom. They are the foundations of the new so- 

129 



i 3 o THE CARPENTER AND HIS KINGDOM 

ciety. They were familiar with the commandments. 
He added a new one: 'A new commandment I 
bring to you, that ye love one another.' This love 
was not to be merely a theory, it was to be tested by 
translation — translation into life. They were to be 
sons and citizens by being and doing rather than by 
knowing how. It was an experience, not a theory, a 
life not a dogma. And He Himself was the standard 
and test of the truth. He was the centre of the system — 
if it can be called a system. 

His ministry began by announcing the Kingdom. 
It ended by sending the disciples forth to the ends 
of the earth to preach it. His entire ministry was 
occupied by illuminating, illustrating, and exempli- 
fying it. In the Sermon on the Mount He states the 
fundamentals. His language was simple, His ideas 
were clear. When the occasion demanded it He gave 
an object lesson. 



11 84 
The Child as a Type of the Kingdom 

He took a little child on His knee and said, 'Of 
such is the Kingdom of God.' They imagined He 
was talking about a future state of abode. He corrects 
the [impression: 'The Kingdom of God is within 

you.' He spoke of its mysteries and explained them. 
He spoke of the 'keys,' and promised them to the 
disciples. They were unaware of it, but they had the 
keys already in their possession. There were con- 
ditions. For the rich to enter was hard — very hard. 
For the poor it was easy — very easy. It was to be 
received as a little child. It was to be a unity — not 
a uniformity. 'A Kingdom divided,' He pointed 
out, was a Kingdom tumbling to ruins. His was 
to be held intact by spiritual power. 'That they 
may be one, Father,' He prayed. When He sent 
the disciples forth it was to preach the Kingdom. 



THE KINGDOM OF GOD 131 

II 85 
Conduct and Character 

Citizenship in the Kingdom was based on love* 
Love to God and Man. It had no social limitations. 
It was universal. He enumerates types of citizens, 
the poor, the humble, the pure in heart, the kind. 
Current types of piety were legalistic. They prayed 
and worshipped and gave alms to be seen of men. 
With the new it was to be different. Whatever they 
did was to be done quietly, unostentatiously as unto 
the Father and not unto men. In the old times, seasons, 
feasts, fasts, phlacteries counted. In the new, character 
and conduct as the outworking of love, were the signs 
of citizenship. 

II 86 

The Distinctive Feature 

The world was full of needy people. Men were self- 
centred and imagined they were doing well if they ful- 
filled the naked requirements of the law. Loving ser- 
vice, was the distinctive feature of the Kingdom. Love 
did not ask how little, but how much it could do. He 
Himself came not to be ministered unto but to minister. 
He told them to give until they had nothing left, to 
lend and not expect to be repaid, to return good for evil, 
and a kind word for an insult. 



V 87 

The Joyful Heart 

People were sin-stricken and soul-weary. The message 
of the Kingdom was the good news of God. God's good 



i 3 2 THE CARPENTER AND HIS KINGDOM 

news was God's love, and it gave peace to the troubled, 
and hope to the sinner. The channels through which 
it flowed were human hearts. One joyful heart gave 
another joy, and the love stream broadened and deep- 
ened. 



11 88 

No Class Distinctions 

Class consciousness and class distinctions — then as 
now — were a curse. In the Kingdom men were sons, 
and equally sons. They might be different in a thousand 
ways but in this they were equally alike — they were 
members of the same family and owed loyalty and 
allegiance to one common Father. All differences were 
fused into the elembic of love. If special consideration 
was shown to any, it was to those most in need of it. 
The healing power of love was the peculiar privilege of 
the sick, the sinner, the poor, and the sorrowful. 

It 89 

Contempt for the World 

'Extreme contempt for the world' — worldy goods — 
worldly honours, standards, and opinions, was one of 
the Kingdom's most pronounced characteristics. 

The earliest conflict in the Master's life was with the 
men who considered that a Man's life consisted in what 
he owned. Jesus denied it, and taught His disciples to 
deny it. When a rich man came He offered a choice 
between the Kingdom and the world, between wealth of 
the heart and wealth that perished. If he couldn't let 
go, he couldn't come in. If a wise man came he was told 
that he would have to be re-born before he could enter 
the fellowship of the poor, the humble, and the simple- 
hearted. Not many wise men, not many rich men came. 






. THE KINGDOM OF GOD 133 

The Kingdom was an uncongenial atmosphere for men 
whose god was either stomach or brain. 



II 90 
Love and Law 

In religion men were playing with shadows. They 
were punctilious censorians and severe. They observed 
the forms, performed lip service, and talked in pious 
phrases. The cardinal canon in the intricate system 
was the Sabbath. It was originally intended as a day of 
rest from labour. In the time of Jesus it was observed 
chiefly by the men who, considering labour beneath 
their dignity, nothing in that respect to rest from! 
When they saw Jesus heal on the Sabbath they accused 
Him of violating the law. According to them, when He 
plucked the ears of corn He was performing work. His 
answers are always to the point. Over against every 
foolish insistence of the old regime He puts the spiritual 
standards of the new. In the Kingdom service to man, 
to one another knows no limitations. 'The Sabbath 
was made for man, not man for the Sabbath.* 

If 91 
As a Little Child 

Despite His explanations the Kingdom was not 
clearly understood. A little boy is brought to Jesus 
by his father. The boy is distraught and is foaming 
at r the mouth. Current belief said he was possessed 
of "a demon. Jesus took the little fellow in His arms 
and he became calm and quiet and rational. The 
disciples were astonished. 'Why could we not do 
that?' they asked. 'You can by prayer and fasting,' 
He said. Then Jesus and the boy and his father and 
the disciples in twos and threes walked down the road 
to Capernaum. 



i 3 4 THE CARPENTER ANDJHIS KINGDOM 

II 92 

Bickering about Rank 

When they entered the house of Jesus and sat 
down there was a silent pause. 'Tell me,' Jesus said, 
as He looked at the disciples, 'what were you talking 
about as you came along the road?' The words 
were graciously and tenderly spoken, but they cut into 
the conscience with convincing force. Some one at last 
spoke: 'We were arguing about which of us should be 
the greatest in the Kingdom.' He had taught them to 
tarry for its coming. He had outlined its basic values 
and principles. Now He had exemplified its working in 
loving service, but instead of conferring with each other 
as how they could follow His example, they were bicker- 
ing about rank. 

Later they returned to the selfish aspect and asked: 
'Who is greatest in the Kingdom?' He took a little 
child and setting him in the midst said: 'Except ye 
be converted from this selfish point of view and 
become as this little child you cannot even enter 
the Kingdom. ' 

II 93 
How to attain Greatness 

Salomi came to Him and presented the claims of 
her sons, John and James, to pre-eminence in the 
Kingdom. She thought one of them had a right to 
sit on His right hand and the other on His left. Whether 
she had in her mind a political Kingdom or a future 
state is not quite clear, but there is nothing obscure 
in His answer. John and James were evidently 
standing there beside their mother. Jesus directed 
His answer not to Salomi but to them: 'Are ye able 
to drink of the same cup, and be baptized with 
the same baptism as shall be given to me?' 

They answered 'Yes.' He told them He knew 
they were but as for the coveted places they were 



THE KINGDOM OF GOD 135 



j not His to give but the Father's. The others were 
J angry at John and James, but Jesus smoothed over 
I the ruffled feelings by again explaining that among 
i the Gentiles princes and rulers exercised authority, 
' but in the Kingdom the badge of greatness was 
I service. 'Whosoever will be great among you, let 
I him be your minister, and whosoever will be chief 
J let him be your servant.' 

They might not have clearly understood this at 
1 the time, but there could have been no more doubt 
! when He illustrated it on another occasion by girding 
Himself with a towel and washing their feet. 

II 94 
Dignities, Titles, Distinctions 

In the Kingdom, the pregnancy of love covered all 
the affairs of men. Its religion and ethics were so inter- 
woven that they could not be separated. Kindness is 
greater than wisdom and a loving heart is of more im- 
portance than a brilliant mind. The mysterious gulf 
that divides the human from the divine is bridged. He 
is the bridge. Force of arms, either of patriots or angels 
is foreign to it. It has no slaves, no vested material 
interests, no spoils of office, or external rewards. The 
world was to be leavened with love — the will of God was 
the ruling principle and the dominating force. Dignities, 
titles, distinctions were out of place. He was the Master, 
and the members were all brethren. The harlot with a 
thirst for righteousness was of more concern to Him 
than the self-righteous Scribe or Pharisee. He pictured 
harlots and publicans marching into the Kingdom while 
the punctilious and self-centred religious leaders re- 
mained outside. 

f 95 
Theory and Practice in Religion 
There were times when He stated the basic value; of 



136 THE CARPENTER AND HIS KINGDOM 

religion in a single sentence. If any doubt remained 
He would illustrate it with a story. Over a thousand 
years before Jesus, the Jew had been taught to love his 
neighbour as himself. In that case the neighbour was 
also a Jew. He reminded a critic of this one day, and 
the critic asked: ' Who is my neighbour ? ' The answer 
of Jesus gives the difference between the theory of the 
old and the practice of the new. He did not deal in 
glittering genialities. He told a parable that left nothing 
unsaid, even to the dullest of minds. One day, on the 
road to Jericho, a Jew fell among thieves. They robbed 
and beat him, and left him on the roadside, nigh unto 
death. A priest came by on his way to worship, saw the 
man, and passed on. A levite, another kind of priest, 
came by, looked at the man, and went on his way. The 
dying man had a claim on these men. They were the 
representatives of God. Then a Samaritan came along, 
saw the Jew in his plight, put soothing oil on his wounds, 
bandaged them up, and put him on his own (the Samari- 
tan's) beast, and took him to an inn. There he stayed 
all night with him and when he left next day, he told the 
innkeeper to give the man all he needed, and charge 
the bill to him. 'Which of these men was neigh- 
bour to the man who fell amongst the thieves,' 
Jesus asked. There was no way but the right way out 
for the critic ; he confessed that the pagan was the better 
Jew. In such manner Jesus broke down race barriers 
and distinctions, and taught the principles of the 
Kingdom. 



ir 96 

The Essence of Religion 

The contempt of the orthodox religionist for the sinner 
and the unlearned, was equalled only by his con- 
tempt for the foreigner — for the outsider. There are 
passages which would seem to interpret Jesus as par- 
taking of this contempt. They are like false notes 



THE KINGDOM OF GOD 137 

in music. They do not harmonise with the tone and 
tenor of the great charter or with the universal out- 
look which characterises His teachings. He held up a 
Roman soldier as the greatest example of faith. He 
points to a Samaritan as the greatest example of 
Philanthropy. To a Samaritan woman He defined 
the essence of the Kingdom. One day He was sitting 
beside a well within half an hour's journey from Shechem. 
On one side was Mount Ebal, and on the other Gerizim. 
This was the home, and these were the sacred mountains 
of the Samaritans whose bread was to the Jews as the 
flesh of swine. A Samaritan woman came to draw 
water, and He asked her for a drink. The woman was 
astonished that a Jew should break the age-long anti- 
pathy by accepting a favour from a woman of a race 
they despised. By the kind tone, the gentle look, the 
noble bearing, she knew He was a prophet, and she asked 
Him to explain. He told her of the water she knew not of 
— of living water that refreshed the soul. He spoke of the 
well, and its blessing, and of the sacredness of the moun- 
tains where her fathers worshipped. 'And yet,' she 
said, 'You tell us that it is only at Jerusalem that men 
should worship.' 

Jesus said: 'Woman, believe me, the hour cometh 
when ye shall neither in this mountain nor yet at 
Jerusalem, worship the Father. But the hour 
cometh and now is when the true worshippers shall 
worship the Father in spirit and in truth.' 

And they who worship the Father in spirit and in 
truth shall know the truth, and the truth shall make 
them free, and the free spirit in worship discovers the 
Father's will and in love makes it His own. That, 
Jesus says, is the essence of the Kingdom. 



1f 97 
Institutions of the Kingdom 
Of canonical law or a system of applied morality 



138 THE CARPENTER AND HIS KINGDOM 

or of creeds or liturgies, there is no trace in the teaching 
of Jesus. He was baptized by John, but He does not 
seem to have insisted upon it with others — not even 
His disciples. His baptism was of fire and spirit. 
The breaking of bread and the drinking of wine, were 
pointed out as symbols of His life and death. By 
these they would remember Him and follow in His 
footsteps. The observance required no priest. He 
Himself was the bread from heaven. The citizen of 
the Kingdom was a priest. The repasts of the Master 
and His friends were the most sacred, joyful, and 
enjoyable moments of their lives. They were com- 
munions in a real sense. In this heart to heart fellow- 
ship the world receded, the body was a matter of secon- 
dary importance. They were at one because love 
predominated and sharply contrasted personalities be- 
came fused and blended in a common atmosphere of 
exultation and idealism. He quoted from the prophets, 
whose idealism was the heritage of His people, but the idea 
of a sacred book or books containing infallible codes of 
conduct, was foreign to His idea of the Kingdom. 



If 98 

The Kingdom and the Church 

In the first three evangelists, the word Kingdom 
occurs over one hundred times. In the fourth evan- 
gelist it occurs four times. In all other books of the 
New Testament the word occurs only about twenty- 
five times. He used the word 'church' {Ecclisia — 
Assembly) twice. Matthew alone records the reference. 
Despite the doubtful meaning attached to the word 
'church' it occurs over one hundred times, in the later 
writings of the New Testament. The prominence 
given to the 'Kingdom' by Jesus was transferred to 
the 'church' by His followers. Why this transfer of 
emphasis? Was it because the Jewish mind could 
not fully comprehend that it was spiritual and not 



THE KINGDOM OF GOD 139 

material, universal and not national? The Roman 
eagles still flew over the Holy City. The Jewish hier- 
archy was still intact and unmoved. Despite His 
miracles and parables the bulk of the people still clung 
to the old regime. 

Were the New Testament writers timid about using 
the words 'king' or 'Kingdom' lest the use would give 
offence to Caesar? The apostles were charged with 
violating a decree of Caesar and teaching 'that there 
is another King — one Jesus.* 



ir 99 

A Misunderstanding 

We have some records of apocalyptic sayings and 
prediction of Jesus that were not fulfilled. That He 
was misunderstood is beyond question. His teaching 
was bound to come into juxtaposition with current 
religious beliefs. As it did so it was modified. There 
is no evidence that He changed His conception, but 
there is abundant proof that to the last, despite the 
wonderful illumination of the parables, His followers 
did not fully understand that to Him the rule of God 
in the heart, the motive power of love, the will of God 
as a rule of faith and conduct was the essence of the 
Kingdom. It was after His resurrection that they 
asked, ' Lord, wilt Thou at this time restore the Kingdom 
to Israel ? ' 

In the earliest record of the church at Jerusalem 
we see the beginning of the change in which the King- 
dom recedes and the church evolves. The first Chris- 
tian Community surpassed the most orthodox Jews 
in the punctilious observances and usages of Judaism. 
They conceived the religion of Jesus as the peculiar and 
exclusive property of Israel. The Gentiles might enter 
the church, but they would have to enter Judaism first 
by the gateway of circumcision. It was Paul the con- 
verted Pharisee, who became the champion of the free 



i 4 o THE CARPENTER AND HIS KINGDOM 

spirit and demanded the right of Gentiles to membership 
without circumcision. He had a clearer vision of the 
Kingdom than any of his contemporaries, and he pre- 
vailed. The Jewish Christians, however, continued their 
existence within the pale of the Jewish economy. Peter 
was accused by the Christian church at Jerusalem, just 
as Jesus was accused by the Pharisees — of eating with 
sinners (Gentile converts). In self-defence, Peter re- 
lated that in a vision God had revealed to him that what 
what he had made clean no man could make unclean. 
When they heard of the vision they said in astonishment : 
1 Then hath God also to the Gentiles granted repentance 
unto life.' In the light of this controversy over Jews 
and Gentiles, circumcision and non-circumcision we 
see more clearly why Jesus Himself was involved by 
the evangelists who quote Him as pronouncing a curse 
upon whomsoever failed to fulfil the most minute 
requirement of the law. But how He could do this and 
at the same time castigate with withering scorn the 
religious hypocrite who scrupulously observed the rub- 
bish while they neglected the real values of life, is 
difficult to understand 

1f ioo 

The Kingdom Ignored 

The earliest Christian took over the synagogue. 
In the course of time, some centuries later, the temple, 
priesthood, vestments, holy days, ritual, and genu- 
flexions, were, as far as possible, incorporated into 
the new society. The Sabbath, baptism, and the 
Lord's supper lost their original simplicity and became 
subjects of speculation and heated controversy. His 
birth, life, and death, and the things He taught, con- 
gealed into dogmas, creeds, and codes over which 
Christians hated, fought, and killed each other. As 
these things became prominent the idea of the Kingdom 
became indefinitive, hazy, and obscure. It never 
regained its place. 



THE KINGDOM OF GOD 141 

If 101 

What the Kingdom is not 

The creeds of Christendom ignore it. The church 
throughout all ages ignored it. Perversions of it have 
arisen. One sect claims the keys of heaven and declares 
itself the Kingdom. Another claims itself the Kingdom 
on the basis of an infallible book, another on the basis 
of an infallible church or faith, or ministry. To others 
it is a future fulfilment of an apocalyptic dream; to still 
others, it is a second coming of the Messiah. Each of 
these may have done good service by the preservation 
of certain aspects of truth, but the Kingdom is none of 
these. It is not the church at Jerusalem, nor yet at 
Antioch. It is not the church of the fathers, nor the 
medieval church, nor the church of the twentieth century. 

If 102 

The Spirit of the Kingdom 

It is the active operation of invisible spiritual laws 
in the hearts of men. It is an inward force with in- 
evitable outward manifestations. It is the vehicle 
through which divine life flows into the relations of 
society and the instrument by which the life finds 
expression. It is the wheat amongst the tares, the 
good seed in the good ground, and the yeast preserving, 
and expanding the bread. In the ages when the church 
was corrupt it preserved it, when it was dead it resur- 
rected it. 

11 103 

The Kingdom the Custodian of the Faith 

In the present age when the church is as the Jewish 
Church was in the time of Augustus, it is the Kingdom 
that keeps the religion of Jesus alive and vital in the 



i 4 2 THE CARPENTER AND HIS KINGDOM 

lives of men. The church is a means to an end, the 
end is the Kingdom. Creeds, rituals, sacred books, 
holy days, and all the infinite variety of auxiliaires 
are subservient to the purpose for which they exist 
— that purpose is to advance the Kingdom. When 
a church appoints itself supreme gatekeeper of the 
Kingdom, it is no longer Christian. When it fails to 
recognise other sheep of the same fold, it has discarded 
the comprehensiveness of the love of the Master for 
the exclusive and poisonous leaven of the Pharisees. 

1F 104 

The Supreme Test 

The final tests^of all sects, all auxiliaries, all religious 
movement is: Do they promote the Kingdom? Do 
they sweeten human life, do they raise it into higher 
moral standards, do they increase mutual confidence 
and love and esteem, do they kindle hearts with loyalty 
to Him? If they do, they are instruments of the King- 
dom! If they do not, they belong to the diocese of 
Laodicea, the communicants of which God spewed out 
of His mouth. 

The need of the world, and the failure of religious or- 
ganisations to meet that need is driving thoughtful men 
toward the ideal of the Kingdom as Jesus preached it. 
Only when that ideal receives the prominence He gave 
it, can we hope for a united and progressive movement 
toward a world-wide spiritual revival. Only then can 
we have an answer to His prayer for the unity of be- 
lievers and the regnancy of love in the hearts of men. 

The Kingdom Illuminated 

The Parables 

IF 105 
Foreword 
In Archbishop Trench's book on the parables (prob- 



THE KINGDOM OF GOD 143 

ably the most widely circulated and least read book 
ever written on the subject), we are warned that: 'The 
parables may not be made primary sources of doctrine. 
Doctrine otherwise and already established may be 
illustrated or indeed further confirmed by them, but it 
is not allowable to constitute doctrine first by their aid. 
They may be the outer ornamental fringe, but not the 
main texture of the proof.' 

11 106 

Light and the Kingdom 

Perhaps the good bishop would not object if we 
made them the 'primary source' of light! To him 
the doctrines were all established and 'confirmed.' 
The last word had been said, and the feet laid down 
so heavily on the confirmation had turned to bronze. 
The 'ornamental fringe' to the modem seeker after 
light is not the parables but the entire fabric of theo- 
logical controversy which has obscured the light of the 
Kingdom. And the ' main texture ' is not what a bishop 
thinks or the fathers wrote or the ' established ' doctrines 
of warring sects, but what He taught and did. 

In the Sermon on the Mount, we have the antitheses. 

In the parables we have parallelism. The former is 
direct, the latter is a word picture of life and nature 
which provokes the mind to find the implied but hidden 
meaning. A story is told, the meaning of which is 
obvious, but as the narrative proceeds, the mind of the 
listener is on the alert to discover the implied parallel, 
the story within the story. In the hands of Jesus the 
parable received a new value. It became a new method 
of teaching. It had been used before but never to such 
a lofty purpose or on so large a scale. 

f 107 

Word Pictures 
The reason for the adoption of the parable as a 



i 4 4 THE CARPENTER AND HIS KINGDOM 

means of conveying truth, is not hard to find. Com- 
paratively few people in the crowds following Him had 
the capacity for sustained attention, and those who 
had were tasters, sniffing for heresy or trouble. Even 
His disciples were not overladen with it. 'If the blind 
lead the blind,' He said, 'both shall fall into the 
ditch.' Here is a word picture which would be 
obvious to a child. Yet it was not clear to Simon Peter, 
and he said: 'Explain to us this parable.' The answer 
gives us a clue to the purpose of the new vehicle: 
'Are you also without understanding?' Jesus asked. 

It was best adopted to the mass mind. It gave 
the maximum of instruction with a minimum of offence. 
The Pharisees would look upon the parables as the 
'outer ornamental fringe.' They would find them 
difficult to assail. On the other hand the dullest mind 
could remember a story. They were all such stories 
as the hearers would repeat at home and discuss in the 
market place, and both parables — the obvious and 
the less obvious — were essential to complete under- 
standing. 

The parable was head of a large family, every member 
of which, allegory, metaphor, maxim, proverb, similitude, 
and paradox, Jesus constantly used with force and origi- 
nality. While primarily for the child mind of the grown- 
up people, the parables are incomparable as literature, 
and as such shed more light on the spiritual laws of the 
Kingdom than all the commentaries that have been 
issued in nineteen centuries. 



If 108 

What is taught by Parables 

Matthew is the evangelist of the Kingdom, Luke 
is the democratic illuminator of the love of God toward 
all mankind. Mark is the succinct chronicler of events, 
and few of the parables find a place in his chronicle. 
John has a number of sayings which belong to the parable 



THE KINGDOM OF GOD 145 

J family, but none of them take the story form. In the 
! fourth Gospel, Jesus speaks of Himself as the Door of 
I the Sheep, the Good Shepherd, the Vine and the Light 
1 of the World. They are allegories rather than parables. 
j The parables are incorporated here because primarily 
J they illuminate the mind of the Master. For that 
i reason we are not particularly concerned with chronology, 
nor will we, except incidentally, analyse the variant forms. 
The parables will be considered in four groups. The first 
group illustrates the law of love as it affects the individual 
in the conditions and environments of the Kingdom. 
The second group throws light on the law of love as it 
comes in contact with Pharisaism. The course of the 
Kingdom, its law of growth as illustrated in the third 
and fourth is concerned with responsibility and judg- 
ment. 



1f 109 

The Law of Love and the Individual 

'A certain lender had two debtors: the one 
owed five hundred pence, and the other fifty, 
when they had not wherewith to pay, he forgave 
them both. Which of them therefore will love 
him most?' 

Simon answered and said, He, I suppose, to whom 
he forgave the most. And He said unto him, 'Thou 
hast rightly judged.' 

Luke vii. 41-43. 
The scene of this parable is the house of Simon the 
Pharisee. The occasion is an unusual incident. He 
had accepted the invitation of the Pharisee to dine 
with him. As they sat at the meal a woman of the 
street entered, and gave vent to her emotions. She 
had heard Him somewhere, and a struggle between 
that which was low and that which was high in her 
nature had ensued. It was the overwhelming sense 
of gratitude that urged her to act. A burden had 



i 4 6 THE CARPENTER AND HIS KINGDOM 

rolled away — her heart had become tender, and 
brushing aside all conventionality and reserve, she 
entered the house of Simon as an unwelcome intruder. 
There, forgetful of everything else, she emotionally 
exploded before Him; her hot tears falling on His 
feet, she wiped them with her hair, and annointed 
Him with ointment. To the average person the scene 
would have been pathetic and moving in the extreme. 
Simon with difficulty restrained his indignation. He 
said nothing, but his mind was seething. Jesus saw 
it on his face, every line and furrow became vocal. 
'Simon,' said Jesus, 'I have something to say to 
you,' and the Pharisee politely replied, ' Master, say on.' 
Then He told the parable of the debtors. There is 
something daring in this picture. Only Jesus could 
imagine a Shylock foregoing his pound of flesh! For 
He alone could see that goodness was fundamental, 
and evil incidental! We have what seems to be an 
inherent distrust in our fellow beings, and our eyes 
and ears are ever on the alert for the worst aspects 
of the lives of others. Simon mused within himself: 
'If this man is a prophet he would know that this 
creature is a fallen woman!' Yes, He did know, and 
He knew Simon too, and He weighed them in the scales 
of the Kingdom and the orthodox devotee of the temple 
was the lighter of the two. 

He was not inconsiderate of His host either. As 
a teacher He let the lesson do its work. He asked 
Simon to decide frankly which of the two debtors 
loved most. Simon told Him he supposed it was the 
one to whom most had been forgiven. 

'I came as your guest,' Jesus said, 'and you gave 
me no water to wash my feet. You gave me no 
kiss of salutation, yet in the courtesies for which 
as a leader you take credit to yourself, you have 
been put to shame by an abandoned woman.' 

There is no answer, no defence, no apology. As the 
woman stands there, Jesus tells Simon that her sins 
are forgiven and why. She loved much. He finally, 
amid the mutterings of the guests, turned to the woman 



THE KINGDOM OF GOD 147 

and told her that her faith had saved her, and she could 
go away in peace. 

This is the type of spiritual value that has never 
been formulated into a dogma. That the tears of 
the harlot are more acceptable to God than the com- 
placent negative goodness of a Pharisee of ancient or 
modern times, is a hard lesson to learn, and few there 
are that learn it. 



If no 

The Measure of Forgiveness 

'The Kingdom of heaven is likened unto a cer- 
tain king, which would make a reckoning with 
his servants. And when he had begun to reckon, 
one was brought unto him, which owed him ten 
thousand talents. But forasmuch as he had not 
wherewith to pay his lord commanded him to be 
sold, and his wife and children, and all that he 
had, and payment to be made. The servant 
therefore fell down and worshipped him saying, 
Lord have patience with me and I will pay thee 
all. And the lord of that servant, being moved 
with compassion, released him and forgave him 
the debt. But that servant went out and found 
one of his fellow-servants, which owed him a 
hundred pence, and he laid hold on him, and 
took him by the throat, saying, Pay thou what 
thou owest. So his fellow servant fell down and 
besought him, saying, Have patience with me 
and I will pay thee. And he would not, but went 
and cast him into prison, till he should pay his 
due. So when his fellow servants saw what was 
done they were exceedingly sorry, and came and 
told their lord all that was done. Then his lord 
called him unto him and saith to him, Thou 
wicked servant, I forgave thee all that debt be- 
cause thou besoughtest me. Shouldst thou not 



148 THE CARPENTER AND HIS KINGDOM 

have mercy on thy fellow servant even as I had 
mercy on thee? And his lord was wroth and 
delivered him to the tormentors till he should 
pay all that was due. 

Even so shall your heavenly Father do unto 
you if ye forgive not every one his brother from 
your hearts.' 

Matthew xviii. 23-35, 

Jesus had just finished telling the disciples how 
members of the Kingdom should treat a brother who 
had trespassed against another. The offended one 
was to see the erring brother personally and point 
out the offence. If he was amenable to reason he was 
gained, and there was an end of it. If not, the offended 
was to take two or three others, and repeat the visit. 
If he remained obdurate he was to be taken before 
the assembly. If he would not abide by the decision 
of the assembly he was to be cast out as a heathen. 
Then Peter asks: 'How often shall my brother 
sin against me and I forgive him: till seven times?' 
Peter probably imagined this a generous measure of 
forgiveness. He must have looked aghast when Jesus 
said, — 'Not seven times, but seventy times seven.' 
Those to whom religion is a respectable habit of mind, 
are as dumbfounded as Peter was. No religious sect 
pays any attention either to the method or measure of 
these injunctions. They are unthinkable to the average 
man either in or out of organised religion. 

They gaze at Him open-mouthed. It is utterly 
beyond their range. In order to bring it down to their 
understanding, He tells the story of the unmerciful 
debtor. The King in the story is taking stock. He 
discovers one man who owes him ten thousand talents 
— a fabulous sum. He determines to exact the last 
penny. The servant prostrates himself, and pleads 
for time. The King relents and forgives him all. 

Then the servant goes out and meets another servant 
who owes him a hundred pence, seizes him by the 
throat and demands the money. The debtor pleads, 



THE KINGDOM OF GOD 149 

but pleads in vain. He is thrust into prison. The 
King hears of it and summoning the unmerciful man, 
executes the original judgment. The hidden mean- 
ing — which is quite plain — is that the unmerciful 
servant is the man who has been forgiven much but 
is not willing to forgive even in an infinitesimal degree 
his brother. Jesus says: 'Even so (as the King) 
shall my heavenly Father do unto you, if ye forgive 
not every one his brother from your hearts.' He 
told this to Peter and the twelve and to all their spiritual 
descendants, and if God executes the Judgment as 
King in the parable did there will be no congestion 
of population in heaven. Membership in the Kingdom 
of Heaven presupposes a heart full of love and human 
kindness. To such a heart all things are possible. 
The harlot had it and Simon had not. It is found in 
places where we least expect it, but wherever it is found, 
there is God and His Kingdom. 



II in 
The Religion of a Heretic 

*A certain man was going down from Jerusalem 
to Jericho; and he fell among robbers, which 
both stripped him and beat him, and departed, 
leaving him half dead. 

And by chance a certain priest was going down 
that way: and when he saw him, he passed by 
on the other side. 

And in a like manner a Levite also when he 
came to the place, and saw him, passed by on 
the other side. 

But a certain Samaritan as he journeyed, 
came where he was: and when he saw him, he 
was moved with compassion, and came to him, 
and bound up his wounds, pouring on them oil 
and wine: and he set him on his own beast, and 
brought him to an inn, and took care of him. 



i 5 o THE CARPENTER AND HIS KINGDOM 

And on the morrow he took out twopence, and 
gave them to the host, and said, Take care of 
him: and whatsoever thou spendeth more, I, 
when I come back again, will repay thee.' 

Luke x. 30-35 (r.v.). 

The story of the Samaritan was told to illustrate 
the sum total of all religion — Love to God and love 
to one's neighbour. A lawyer, in quest of an argument, 
asks Jesus what he shall do to inherit eternal life. 
Jesus forces him back on his own standard of conduct: 
*What is written in the law?' The lawyer knows and 
answers: 'To love God and my neighbour. 5 Jesus 
replied: 'Thou hast answered right — this do and 
thou shalt live.' The lawyer asks the eternal question: 
'Who is my neighbour?' We can talk for days and 
weeks about abstractions without uncovering our 
meanness. A neighbour is a concrete entity, and the 
moment we enter the discussion we are confronted 
with responsibility. Jesus did not embarrass the 
lawyer by a personal reply. The question had a uni- 
versal interest. He gave an impersonal and universal 
answer. He expounded the law of the Kingdom as it 
related to neighbourship. 

A Jew on the road between Jerusalem and Jericho 
was robbed and beaten by some Jewish thieves. When 
they had deprived him of his property, and beaten him 
into helplessness, they left him lying on the roadside. 
A priest came along, saw the man at the point of death, 
but did not offer help. He was probably on his way to 
the temple. Anyway, whatever excuse he offered to 
himself seems to have been satisfactory. He passed on. 
He was followed by a Levite — another kind of priest. 
He also seems to have had a pressing engagement, for 
he too passed on. No explanation to the lawyer was 
necessary about these busy men. He knew it was their 
peculiar professional business to render aid in a case of 
this sort. Their brutal neglect was the veiled parallel 
to the thread of the story. They refused to a brother 
what the law demanded they should give to beasts — 



THE KINGDOM OF GOD 151 

merciful help in time of pain and distress or need. 
Mercy was a weighty matter of the law. It was his 
function to teach that and to urge its exercise. No 
one was looking, however, and with a faith in God as 
slim as faith in his brother, he hurried on. 

Then came a Samaritan, who, to the Jew, was a 
heretic, and a foreigner. He saw the dying Jew on the 
roadside, and dismounting from his beast began to 
minister to his needs. He poured oil on the wounds, 
bandaged them up, comforting him while he was doing it. 
He put him on the beast, and walking beside him con- 
veyed him to an inn, where he stayed all night with him. 
When he left next day, he gave the landlord instructions 
to care for the sufferer and charge the bill to his account. 

* Which now, of these three, thinketh thou, was 
the neighbour unto him that fell among thieves?' 
Jesus asked, as He finished the parable. There was but 
one answer, 'He that showed mercy on him.' And the 
incident ends by Him saying: 'Go and do thou 
likewise.' Here, then, we have the religion of a 
heretic from Gerizim weighed in the balance with the 
religion of an orthodox priest from Mount Zion, and 
He lets the critic pronounce judgment! And when 
pronounced it was the Law of the Kingdom, and 
the warp and woof of the religion of Jesus. 

And the judgment stands and stands for ever. 'Am 
I my brother's keeper?' asks the heretic of Gerizim! 
Can disinterested love open the door of the Kingdom? 
Ask the Centurion of Capernaum! Can the tears of a 
penitent harlot outweigh the religion of a hardened 
ecclesiastical leader? Ask the street walker of Caper- 
naum! These are the people who become His friends. 



1f 112 

A Good Investment 

The Kingdom of heaven is like unto a treasure 
hidden in the field ; which a man found, and hid : 



152 THE CARPENTER AND HIS KINGDOM 

and in his joy he goeth and selleth all that he 
hath and buyeth that field. 

Matthew xiii. 44. 



We can find apt analogies for most of His word 
pictures of divine truth, but the treasure hid in the 
field belongs exclusively to the orient. The best analogy 
in modern life is the man who discovers oil, and forthwith 
exerts every effort to get possession of the land. So 
much romance and adventure has been associated with 
such discoveries, that the phrase 'struck oil' has become 
a common one, in those parts of the world where such 
discoveries have changed men in a day from penury to 
opulence. 

Whatever way one looks at the picture, it has the 
same meaning to our western minds. It was a good 
investment. So is the Kingdom, of course, but men 
are not parting with much in order to possess it. They 
are taking no chances in matters economic to possess 
themselves of spiritual wealth. 

In the parable of the hidden treasure Jesus takes 
an illustration of common experience in the East, where 
a man often buried his most valued treasure in a hole in 
the ground. Occasionally he died and carried the secret 
away with him. Later, when some one discovered it, 
the finder would at once proceed to part with all he had, 
in order to possess the field containing the treasure. 
He is not teaching economics or political economy. The 
emphasis must be put where it belongs — on the parallel 
truth. When a man discovers in the law of the Kingdom 
the secret of living, he proceeds to possess it by getting 
rid of the things that stand in the way. Greed and covet- 
ousness and all the kindred brood of vices that poison the 
spiritual life, must give way before love. The man who 
discovers the real thing becomes enthusiastic, he has 
an inward joy that makes itself felt in his relations with 
others. The man who strikes oil in the Kingdom dis- 
covers the oil of joy. 

That is the essence of the parable. 



THE KINGDOM OF GOD 153 

The twin parable of the pearl of great price, is a com- 
panion picture. There is nothing particularly meri- 
torious in a pearl merchant selling all he had in order to 
secure the pearl of great price. It was good busi- 
ness. He was after profit. The inference to be drawn 
is that if a man could own the earth, and lose 
his life, he would be nothing profited. 'This is what a 
man does in business.' Jesus is telling them. So 
it is in the Kingdom. The profits are spiritual — joy 
of spirit, satisfaction of heart, peace of conscience. 
To get possession of these it becomes necessary to give 
up the questionable pleasure of either mind or body. 
From the viewpoint of the Kingdom, it is good business. 



CHAPTER XI 

THE KINGDOM IN ACTION 
If 113 

The Ethics of Importunity 

* Which of you shall have a friend, and shall go 
unto him at midnight, and say unto him, Friend, 
lend me three loaves, for a friend of mine is 
come to me from a journey, and I have nothing 
to set before him. 

And he from within shall answer and say, 
Trouble me not: the door is now shut, and my 
children are now with me in bed: I cannot rise 
and give thee. 

I say unto you, though he will not rise and 
give him because he is his friend, yet because of 
his importunity he will arise and give him as 
many as he needeth.' 

Luke xi. 5-8. 

We cannot imagine Jesus advising a man, that if he 
does not receive what he asks for at the first asking, 
to keep on nagging until he gets it! Ethically that is 
a questionable procedure. An Eastern merchant often 
asks twice as much as an article is worth, with the 
expectation that the buyer will haggle and argue until 
the merchant making a series of concessions arrives 
at the real price. The procedure is common in the 
East. Overcharging is as common with us, but we 
have no time for haggling, so we pay. 

While the story is less obvious to us than to the oriental 
mind, the parallel is quite plain. 

154 



THE KINGDOM IN ACTION 15s 



A Spiritual Voyage of Discovery 

He had just been teaching them the model prayer. 
Now He gives them some ideas concerning, the spirit 
of it. He tells the story of the friend at midnight to 
illustrate one phrase— persistence. If an ungracious 
neighbour grudgingly grants a request in an exigency, 
how much more willing will the Father grant the request 
of His children. They will learn how to pray by praying. 
The request for daily bread goes hand in hand with the 
desire that the will of God be done. They will make mis- 
takes, but they are not to be discouraged. Importunity 
is not nagging, with them. It is a spiritual voyage of 
discovery. They have chart and compass, but they 
are merely guides to show the way. Explorers need 
courage to reach the goal. So does the citizen of the 
Kingdom. There are times when the violation of a 
spiritual law is as helpful as its observance. We ask for 
things and get them, only to discover that we have asked 
for something which becomes a curse. Importunity in 
prayer is not the mere repetition of a request. It is 
learning what to pray for. It is the blending in purpose 
of our spirits with the spirit of God. It is keeping at it 
until we know that the blending is complete. 

The lesson of importunity is for children in the faith. 
It is for the beginner. The spiritual nature asks for 
little, needs little. The beginner who is unconscious 
that he is asking God to set aside the laws of the universe, 
must learn sense and proportion by carrying on. To 
cease, is to cut the nerve of aspiration. The parable is 
the story of Jacob wrestling with the angel, adopted for 
the use of the children of the Kingdom. 

The will to believe brought them into the Kingdom. 
The will to materialise, to make real their dreams becomes 
evidence of citizenship. Knock and it shall be opened, 
ask and ye shall receive, keep on knocking and asking — 
carry on! 



i 5 6 THE CARPENTER AND HIS KINGDOM 

H 114 
A Woman and the Law 

'There was in a city a judge, which feared not 
God, and regardeth not man: 

And there was a widow in that city? and she 
came oft unto him saying, Avenge me of mine 
adversary. 

And he would not for a while: 

But afterwards he said within himself, Though 
I fear not God nor regard man : yet because this 
widow troubleth me, I will avenge her, lest she 
wear me out by her continual coming.' 

Luke xviii. 2-5. 

The story of the ungracious friend and the story 
of the unjust judge are companion parables. They 
have a similar motive and teach the same truth. Here 
again let us observe that He is not teaching jurisprudence. 
He is telling a story to fix in the mind a principle. The 
Kingdom of Heaven suffered violence and the violent 
take it by storm. In this case it is a woman who persists. 
She is a widow, who has been illegally deprived of her 
rights. She takes the legal course to regain them. The 
judge hears her case but strings her along from day to 
day without applying the law. She is a widow and 
her existence depends upon her rights. Jesus describes 
the Judge as a man who neither reverenced God nor 
regarded man — and woman less than either. The 
woman finding the Judge obdurate and lazy, uses the 
only weapon at her disposal — her tongue. She uses it, 
as woman has had to do in all ages. She uses it with 
increasing force until the old man said within :himself 
'I can defy God and man with measurable success, but 
this woman will wear me out with continual coming!' 
So he avenges her, not because she was right, but be- 
cause she gave him no rest until he had done his duty, 
and applied the law. The contrasts are, an unjust 
judge and a loving Father; a persistent woman, knowing 



THE KINGDOM IN ACTION 157 

she was right, and the child of the Kingdom with hope 
deferred. If this Judge yielded to importunity, will not 
your Father hear your prayers offered day and night? 
He spent whole nights in prayer Himself. Prayer is not 
a matter of duration, nor place, nor posture, but its 
mysteries are only revealed to those who will do what is 
necessary for effectual communion, and one of the 
essentials is continual exercise. 

11 115 
The Mind of a Capitalist 

'The ground of a certain rich man brought 
forth plentifully: and he reasoned with himself, 
saying, What shall I do, because I have not where 
to bestow my fruits? And he said, This will I do. 
I will pull down my barns and build greater; and 
there will I bestow all my corn and my goods. 
And I will say to my soul, Soul, thou hast much 
goods laid up for many years; take thine ease, 
eat, drink, and be merry. But God said unto 
him, Thou foolish one, this night thy soul is re- 
quired of thee; and the things which thou hast 
I prepared, whose shall they be? So is he that 
layeth up treasure for himself and is not rich 
toward God.' 

Luke xii. 16-21 (r.v.). 

The parable of the rich fool is as obvious as the parable 
of the unjust steward is obscure. We can easily com- 
prehend the methods by which a crooked steward would 
provide for emergencies by carrying favour with his 
master's tenants, but when Jesus tells His disciples to 
make friends of the mammon of unrighteousness, nobody 
knows what He means. Many have told us what they 
think it means, but their interpretations have only 
added chaos to confusion. The wires have been crossed 
at some point and the message has suffered in trans- 
mission. 



1 5 8 THE CARPENTER AND HIS KINGDOM 

Immediately following the injunction is one of the 
most characteristic and clear cut of all His teachings: 
'Ye cannot serve God and Mammon.' That is the 
law of the Kingdom. Not a whit less clear is this story 
of the barren-hearted capitalist. He uses the brutal 
language of the vulgar rich: 'Eat, drink, and be 
merry.' His crops are good, his success is phenomenal. 
'I will pull down my barns and build greater,' he muses. 
Then when his produce is stored he will tell his soul to 
take its ease — 'for many 3'ears.' There is much poverty 
that spells misery, but there is no misery of want so 
miserable as the overglutted satisfaction of wealth. 

The rich fool is a type not unfamiliar to any age. 
In modern life he adds to his soul's satisfaction a re- 
spectable denomination and an ultra-respectable party. 
He is the patron of charities, an habitue of exclusive 
clubs, and talks, as if he were going to live for ever. 
He creates nothing, he earns nothing, he lives by the 
sweat of the other faces, his opulence is at the expense 
of another's penury, his ease is secured by another's 
pain. He is protected by law, coddled by religion, 
and fawned upon by the truculent. Yet when his hour 
comes these cannot hold him. He must go. The 
death angel lays his hand on him and his grip relaxes. 
'Thou fool! this night thy soul is required of thee, then 
what becomes of the barns and wealth? so is every one 
that layeth uo treasure for himself and is not rich toward 
God!' 



11 n6 

Self Measurement 

'Two men went up into the temple to pray; 
one was a Pharisee, and the other a publican. 
The Pharisee stood and prayed thus to himself, 
God, I thank thee that I am not as the rest of 
men, extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even as 



THE KINGDOM IN ACTION 159 

this publican. I fast twice in the week; I give 
tithes of all that I get. But the publican, stand- 
ing afar off, would not lift so much as his eyes 
unto heaven, but he smote his breast saying, 
God, be merciful to me, a sinner.' 

Luke xviii. 10-13 (R.v.)- 

By a modern Jewish critic this parable has been 
called a caricature of a Pharisee. Perhaps it is. Shylock 
was also a caricature. Both pictures have been objected 
to by the Jews. They might just as easily have been 
Englishmen or Frenchmen or Americans. It is of no 
consequence whether the words were thought or uttered. 
Jesus paints a word picture of the mind. That such 
minds exist is only too obvious. 

No Jew will deny that the typical Pharisee was 
capable of thinking such self-righteous thoughts. For 
the most grotesque caricature of the Pharisees we do 
not search Christian literature, but Jewish. The 
talmud speaks of them as a 'plague.' They were 
catalogued under many heads. The 'shoulder' — Phari- 
see was the type whose shoulders were bowed down by 
the weight of his own good deeds. The 'borrower — 
Pharisee' begged the loan of a little time that he might 
perform an extra good work. The 'calculating — 
Pharisee' prayed that his few sins might be deducted 
from his many virtues. The 'thrifty — Pharisee' said: 
'From my modest means I have something to perform 
a good work.' Another said: 'Would that I knew of a 
sin I had committed that I might perform an act of 
virtue in atonement.' There was the 'Schechem — 
Pharisee' who walked with his eyes shut lest the sight 
of a woman might defile him, and who by doing so often 
hit his nose against a post. These are Jewish caricatures 
of Jews. It is caricatured with not only ludicrous exag- 
geration but heightened and coloured by the most biting 
sarcasm. The true Pharisees were Job and Abraham, 
who were Rabbis for love of God. All these types may 
be duplicated and multiplied in the most highly civilised 
communities. 



160 THE CARPENTER AND HIS KINGDOM 

The self-righteous man measures himself by his 
neighbours. His opinion of them is small and his own 
spiritual stature is correspondingly low. In modern 
temples the words are not uttered — they are acted. 
Costumes and make-ups are large items. Russian 
sables costing hundreds of guineas would instantly lose 
their temple value if the lady's washer-woman could 
come to worship rigged out in the same way. Their 
value consists largely in the fact that there are few 
who can possess them. Two persons went into the 
(modern) temple to pray — the one a lady, the other a 
woman! or, the one a parasite, the other a worker! 
Such a basis for a parable would be just as objectionable 
to Christians as the parable of the Pharisee and the 
publican is to the Jews. It would be just as true, how- 
ever. True to life. It is just as easy to experiment in 
the spiritual laboratory as in the chemical. 

It was with the publican, then, it is the publican 
now. The publican in the parable measures himself by 
the love of God, and, feeling acutely the long distance 
between him and the ideal, he cried out, ' God, be merci- 
ful to me, a sinner.' Money talks, clothes talk, titles 
talk, social standing talks — they talk loudly. That is 
one reason why the poor are silent. In the Kingdom 
these have no standing. It is the hearts desire that 
counts. 

Labels are often libels. These two men were wrongly 
tagged. One was labelled good, and he was a fraud. 
The other was labelled bad, and Jesus commends him. 
And what He commends is the essence of the Kingdom. 

The Pharisaic Spirit 

Modern Pharisaism is as subtle as it was in Jerusalem. 
It is as widespread. It is likely to be found in the chapel 
as in the cathedral. The modern type is now, as then, 
more likely to be found in intellectuals. The Pharisee 
is found in Congress, in the Chamber of Deputies, and 
in the House of Commons. He is the contemporary 
ancestor. Sometimes he is an ecclesiastic — the incum- 



THE KINGDOM IN ACTION 161 

j bent of a mausoleum of dead hopes. Sometimes the 
! Pharisaic spirit is accentuated in the empty soul of a 
j parasitic woman. The spirit of the Pharisee is mani- 
I fested in pride of place, creed, sect, or building. It is 
j the narrow ' holier than thou ' attitude in society, politics 
i or religion. The Pharisee is a person who looks down 
on others, and up to himself. It is self-measurement by 
false standards. It is the outward show of pious phrases 
that covers the plague of a gangrened heart. It ingra- 
tiates itself into the sacred precincts of the temple, but 
is excluded from the Kingdom whose standard of mea- 
surement is the Master Himself. 

If ii7 
The Measure of Service 

'But who is there of you, having a servant 
ploughing, or keeping sheep, that will say unto 
him, when he is come in from the field, Come 
straightway and sit down to meat; and will not 
rather say unto him, Make ready wherewith I 
may sup, and gird thyself, and serve me, till I 
have eaten and drunken; and afterwards thou 
shalt eat and drink. Doth he thank the servant, 
because he did the things that were commanded ? 
Even so ye also, when ye shall have done all the 
things that are commanded you, say, We are 
unprofitable servants; we have done which it was 
our duty to do.' 

Luke xvii. 7-10 (r.v.). 

From the temple we are led out into the open field. 
From the inflated egotist to the subservient slave. From 
the proud boast of performances to the slave shepherd 
watching his sheep. It is beyond our ken to imagine a 
modern ploughman or shepherd leaving the field or hill- 
side, and transforming himself into a flunkey, to serve 
his master as a household menial. Our Western minds 
instantly pounce upon the transformation rather than 



162 THE CARPENTER AND HIS KINGDOM 

the parallel truth of the story. The story is a comment 
on the Pharisee's numeration of works performed. He 
thinks the angels might hold a mass meeting, and pass 
a resolution of thanks to him for his beneficence. It is 
an illustration from the ordinary life of the East. 

Is it customary, He asks, for the master to wait on 
the slaves, or for the slaves to wait on the master? Or 
can you conceive of the master thanking his slave for 
his services ? Of course not. It is the other way about. 
The relation is perfectly understood. But your relation 
to the God of the Universe is not quite as well known. 
They had left their vocation to follow Him, and for 
that they wanted special emoluments here and here- 
after. When you have done all that is in your power to 
do — all that you are commanded — then you may truth- 
fully say, 'We are unprofitable servants, for we have 
only done which was our duty to do.' Humility is one 
of the most beautiful graces of the Kingdom, and it is 
the grace that whispers to the left hand, not on any 
account to let the right hand know what it has been 
doing. Pharisaism is its own sandwichman, placarding 
its good deeds fore and aft. Service like prayer, is to be 
done secretly and if genuinely done that way, receives 
the open reward of the Father. Eye service and self- 
seeking, have no reward. God won't be haggled with 
on a this for that basis. 'Doth Job serve God for 
naught?' Yes, certainly, that is the divine law. 

If 118 

Work and Wages 

'The Kingdom of heaven is like unto a man 
that is a householder, which went out early in 
the morning to hire labourers into his vineyard. 
And when he had agreed with the labourers for a 
penny a day, he sent them into his vineyard. And 
when he went out about the third hour, and saw 
others standing in the market place idle ; and to 
them he said, Go ye also into the vineyard, and 



THE KINGDOM IN ACTION 163 

whatsoever is right I will give you. And they 
went their way. Again he went out about the 
sixth and the ninth hour, and did likewise. And 
about the eleventh hour he went out, and found 
others standing; and he saith unto them, Why 
stand ye here all day idle? They say unto him, 
Because no man hath hired us. He saith unto 
them, Go ye also into the vineyard. And when 
even was come, the lord of the vineyard saith 
unto his steward, Call the labourers, and pay 
them their hire, beginning from the last unto 
the first. And when they came that were hired 
about the eleventh hour, they received every man 
a penny. And when the first came, they sup- 
posed they would receive more; and they like- 
wise received every man a penny. And when 
they received it they murmured against tiie 
householder, saying, These last have spent but 
one hour, and thou hast made them equal unto 
us, which have borne the burden of the day and 
the scorching heat. But he answered and said to 
one of them, Friend, I do thee no wrong: didst 
thou not agree with me for a penny? Take up 
that which is thine, and go thy way; it is my ^ will 
to £ive unto the last, even as unto thee. Is it not 
lawful for me to do what I will with mine own? 
or is thine eye evil, because I am good:; 

Matthew xx. 1-15 (R-V.J. 

At first glance, the parable looks like an ethical dis- 
cussion on labour and capital. We see one man working 
for eleven hours, and another working for one and both 
getting the same pay-a penny. We look at the penny 
Ind surmise that it may mean a pound, but the disparity 
in the labour contribution is not so easily settled. I he 
question is too acute with us to dismiss it as easily as 
the unknown value of a Roman penny 

The whole story is told to illustrate one point, art 
the point was succinctly stated after the telling of 
the parable: 'The last shall be first!' The parable 



i6 4 THE CARPENTER AND HIS KINGDOM 

if adopted by business men or enacted into law as an 
Act of Parliament, would contribute nothing to labour 
or capital, but it might be a good point of departure for a 
revolution. Jesus is illuminating the workings of the 
law of the Kingdom. He sees a host of self-seeking and 
self-righteous people making claims to priority and special 
consideration. They want to lead the procession. He 
turns the procession around and marches it in tail end 
on! that is the point. 

A crowd jostled and pushed each other roughly about 
in London the other day, trying hard with physical force 
to board a train. Each wanted to be first. At the back 
of the crowd stood a frail woman with a baby in her 
arms. The conductress with a woman's instinct, took 
the situation in at a glance. She stopped the rush and 
shouted, 'Gangway for that woman with the child!' 
The crowd was cowed, the rush ceased, and between 
two walls of shamed people the woman walked into the 
train and took a seat. That also is a point. 

Those who at one time or another claimed leadership 
in the procession of the Kingdom were, the elder brother, 
the Pharisee of the temple, Simon the Pharisee, Salome 
and her sons. Others were equally respectable, equally 
good, and equally loud in claim or request. They placed 
themselves by self-estimate in the front rank. In the 
rear rank by their own estimate, also were ranged the 
prodigal, the publican, the woman taken in sin, the 
Capernaum woman of the streets, the tax-gatherers, 
sinners, nondescripts, the poor, and despised. There 
they stand self-placed. The law of the Kingdom gives 
the order, 'Right about turn!' The ranks are reversed 
and the rear rank marches in first ! That is not a pleasant 
sight for front rankers, but that is the plain inference to 
be drawn from this and other parables of Jesus, and to 
the modern, religious mind it is almost unthinkable. 



THE KINGDOM IN ACTION 165 

II "9 
Courage and Deceit 

'What think ye? A man had two sons; and he 
came to the first and said, Son, go work to-day 
in the vineyard. And he answered and said, I 
will not; but afterward he repented himself, 
and went. And he came to the second and said 
likewise. And he answered and said, I go, sir: 
and went not. Whether of the twain did the 
will of his father? They say, the first.' 

Matthew xxi., 28~3ia (r.v.). 

The last part of verse 3 1 is the value of both parables. 
It is Jesus Himself reversing the ranks, and stating the 
reason for the reversal in specific terms. 

Of the two sons, the one who had courage and 
frankness to tell his father the exact truth as he felt 
it at the time is the most commendable. The other 
lacked the courage and played the hypocrite. 'What 
think ye?' He asks, 'which of these sons did the 
will of his father?' They say, 'The first/ 

He reminds them that John the Baptist came, came 
in their way, in the way of righteousness, came to warn 
them, but they believed him not. But the publicans 
and harlots believed him, here they stand, weighed in 
the balance with the offscouring of Galilee and Judaea. 
It is a question of values — spiritual values, and they 
are outweighed. The points of comparison have changed. 
It is the Christian religion of the twentieth century that 
is now in the balance being weighed, with the religion 
of the Kingdom. They were orthodox, they were 
scrupulously careful about the outward forms, rituals, 
and ceremonies, but because they were spiritually dead, 
the publicans and harlots would go into the Kingdom of 
God before them. That is the dictum of Jesus, not only 
to the formalists of ancient times, but to the formalists 
and Pharisees of modern times. They said they would 
go and didn't. The others at first refused point blank, 



166 THE CARPENTER AND HIS KINGDOM 

but later surrendered to love, and went. In the King* 
dom, the frankness of the bad is preferable to the deceit 
of the good. 

If I20 

Solicitude for the Straying 

'How think ye? If any man have a hundred 
sheep, and one of them be gone astray, doth he 
not leave the ninety-and-nine, and go unto the 
mountains, and seek that which goeth astray? 
and if so be that he find it, verily I say unto you, 
he rejoiceth over it more than over the ninety- 
and-nine which have not gone astray. Even so 
it is not the will of your Father which is in hea- 
ven, that one of these little ones should perish.' 

Matthew xviii. 12-14 (r.v.). 

This is a literary as well as a spiritual gem. It en- 
shrines a cardinal truth of the Kingdom. A shepherd 
leaves the sheltered sheepfold where ninety-nine sheep 
are safe, and goes out to the mountains in search of one 
that is lost. Either spoken or written, it is a fascinating 
picture, and kindles the imagination of the dullest mind. 
There were times when his naturally gentle tongue cut 
like a rapier through the sham defences of His critics. 
He could be violently angry without the slighest tinge of 
personal resentment. There were other times when His 
tenderness must have moved them to the edge of tears. 
This was one of them. There are few passages in the 
literature of Israel to equal the idyllic beauty of the 
story of the lost sheep. A passage in the song of Moses 
probably is the nearest approach : — 

'As an eagle stirreth up her nest, 
Fluttered over her young, 
Spreadeth abroad her wings, 
Taketh them, 

Beareth them on her wings. 
So the Lord did lead them. ' 



THE KINGDOM IN ACTION 167 

The Shepherd Heart 

Tender solicitude is the theme in both cases. A sheep 
in the East is more than mutton. There springs up a 
relationship between the shepherd and his sheep that 
has been the theme of poets since Theocritus. The 
lambs are like little children and require care. A sheep 
astray is in danger. Enemies around with beak and 
claw ready to destroy and devour. No one knows this 
as well as the shepherd. No one feels the danger so 
keenly. So he takes risks. He crosses the valleys, 
goes through scrubs and climbs over the rocks to the 
slopes and edges of the mountains. 

No animal is so utterly helpless, when astray, as a 
sheep. It has no scent, no sense of direction. It will 
follow no trail. Like a hen, it will run a short distance 
and suddenly stop! A flock and a shepherd are abso- 
lutely essential to its existence. We feel all this as we 
read the story. When he finds the sheep he rejoices, 
and we share his joy. He is more pleased over the re- 
covery of one, than over the safety of the ninety-and- 
nine. The parallel truth is obvious throughout. The 
sinner who is astray is the wandering sheep. The 
shepherd is the Father. The ninety-and-nine are those 
who remain safely within the shelter of the fold. The 
joy of the shepherd who finds the wandering one, is 
the joy of the angels over the return to the fold of that 
which was lost. This is the defence of a love that never 
wanes, a love that has no limit, no strings attached, and 
is as unconditioned as the fall of the rain or the light of 
the sun that falls equally on the just and the unjust. 
It is a supplemental picture to the lost sheep — a revela- 
tion of the Master Himself as the shepherd of the souls 
of men. 



168 THE CARPENTER AND HIS KINGDOM 

If 121 

Father and Son 

'A certain man had two sons : and the younger 
of them said to his father, Father, give me the 
portion of thy substance that falleth to me. And 
he divided unto them his living. And not many 
days after the younger son gathered all together, 
and took his journey into a far country; and 
there he wasted his substance with riotous living. 
And when he had spent all, there arose a mighty 
famine in that country; and he began to be in 
want. And he went and joined himself to one 
of the citizens of that country; and he sent him 
into the fields to feed swine. And he would have 
fain been filled with the husks that the swine 
did eat; and no man gave unto him. But when 
he came to himself he said, 'How many hired 
servants of my father's have bread enough and 
to spare, and I perish here with hunger! I will 
arise and go to my father, and I will say unto 
him, Father, I have sinned against heaven and 
in thy sight: I am no more worthy to be called 
thy son: make me as one of thy hired servants. 

And he arose and came to his father. But 
while he was yet afar off, his father saw him, and 
was moved with compassion and ran and fell on 
his neck, and kissed him. And the son said unto 
him, Father, I have sinned against heaven and 
in thy sight: I am no more worthy to be called 
thy son. But the father said to his servants, 
Bring forth quickly the best robe, and put it 
on him; and put a ring on his hand, and shoes 
on his feet, and bring the fatted calf, and kill 
it, and let us eat, and make merry: for this my 
son was dead, and is alive again; and he was lost 
and is found. And they began to be merry. 
Now his elder son was in the field : and he came 



THE KINGDOM IN ACTION 169 

and drew nigh to the house, he heard music and 
dancing. And he called one of the servants and 
inquired what these things might be. And he 
said unto him, Thy brother is come; and thy 
father hath killed the fatted calf, because he 
hath received him safe and sound. But he was 
angry, and would not go in; and his father came 
out and entreated him. But he answered and 
said to his father, Lo, these many years do I 
serve thee, and I never transgfessed a command- 
ment of thine: and yet thou never gavest me a 
kid, that I might make merry with my friends; 
but when this thy son came, which hath devoured 
thy living with harlots, thou killest for him the 
fatted calf. And he said unto him, Son, thou art 
ever with me, and all that is mine is thine, but it 
was meet to make merry and be glad ; for this 
thy brother was dead and is alive again; and was 
lost and is found. 

Luke xv. 11-32 (r.v.). 

The parable of the lost sheep, of the lost coin, of the 
lost man, are one parable in three sections. One of 
one hundred, one of ten, one of two. The first was lost 
by accident, the second by ignorance, the third went 
astray deliberately. All of them illustrate the love of 
the Father for the wanderer. 

The woman who lost one of the ten coins, lit a candle 
and searched diligently until she found it. Then she 
called her neighbours and they rejoiced with her. It 
is an Eastern story and to us unusual. The parallel 
truth is more obvious than the story itself. 

The parable of the prodigal is an epitome of the 
Kingdom. It is all there. The erring heart, the sick- 
ness with sin, the balancing of spiritual accounts, the 
decision for right, the return and the welcome of the 
Father, whose love never flagged or wavered. A 
marked feature of these word pictures of the Kingdom 



170 THE CARPENTER AND HIS KINGDOM 

is the rejoicing over the wanderer's return. The refer- j 
ence to the older brother is a reproof of the religious { 
world — arrogant, austere, hard, and out of touch, and j 
sympathy with those for whom the Father's heart 
eternally hungers. 

The Most Beautiful Story 

This is the most beautiful story, the most perfect 
and the most instructive of all the pictures with which 
He illuminated the Kingdom. The prodigal knows 
nothing of dogmas, ordinances, or institutions. He is 
caught by no catch- words, enamoured of no propaganda. 
This is the last word — the ultimate belief in the relation 
of man to God, and God to man. In the simplest pos- 
sible language the basic elements of religion are revealed. 
The theologians have contended that Jesus meant His 
message of the Kingdom to be taken provisionally. 
They assume that the living message was to undergo 
a re-interpretation after His death. It did, and some 
fundamental aspects of His message — some of His 
profoundest sayings — were put aside as of little account. 
This comes very near making Him a mere factor in the 
Kingdom — a forerunner of theologians. The outside 
world is brushing aside sophistry, and going back to 
Him as the Way, the Truth, and the Life — the founder, 
the power, and the personal realisation of the Kingdom. 

The obvious parallel truth is this: we sow the wind 
and reap the whirlwind. A moment of reflection comes. 
We weigh the results — spurious pleasures in one scale, 
real pleasures in the other. The desires of the flesh are 
not what they seemed. We become sated. The desires 
of the spirit are truth, goodness, and beauty. When 
sated with the lower, we crave the higher. The will to 
return is all that is needed. We leave the domain of 
flesh and start out in quest of the spirit. 

That quest brings us back to the Father, and there 
He stands as we left Him, loving us as if we had never 
gone astray. The eternal and unchangeable love of 



THE KINGDOM IN ACTION 171 

the Father for every erring child is the sum total of the 
parable. All the rest is detail. What a wonderful 
picture! Jesus said it, and His word is final! 

The Course of the Kingdom 

If 122 

The Seed and the Soil 

'Hearken: Behold, the sower went forth to 
sow, and it came to pass, as he sowed some seed 
fell by the wayside, and the birds came and de- 
voured it. And others fell on the rocky ground, 
where it had not much earth; and straightway 
it sprung up, because it had no deepness of 
earth: and when the sun was risen, it was 
scorched; and because it had no root, it withered 
away. And others fell among the thorns, and 
the thorns grew up and choked it, and it yielded 
no fruit. And others fell into the good ground, 
and yielded fruit, growing up and increasing; 
and brought forth thirtyfold, and sixtyfold, and 
a hundredfold. And he said, Who hath ears to 

hear, let him hear.' 

Mark iv. 3-9 (R.v). 

Mark calls the above parable 'His doctrine.' Not 
the 'ornamental fringe' or something subject to re- 
vision later, but 'His doctrine.' A great crowd 
pressed upon Him by the seaside, and in order to give 
His voice the greatest possible range, He got into a 
boat, and at this point of advantage He taught them. 
His reference to seed is well understood. The story 
is universal. So is the parallel truth— the truth that 
the spiritual seed of the Kingdom finds different meas- 
ures of receptivity in the hearts of men. The Mas- 
ter explains in detail the meaning, though none ot 
His parables are more obvious. The truth contained 



172 THE CARPENTER AND HIS KINGDOM 

in it is too important to be associated with the slightest 
doubt. So He explains: 'The seed is the word of 
God. The seed that fell by the wayside are those 
that bear, then cometh Satan and taketh away the 
seed lest they should believe and be saved. The 
seed that fell on the rock are those who receive the 
word with joy but having no root, believe only for 
a while, then when temptation comes they fall 
away. The seed that fell among thorns are they 
which, when they have heard, go forth, but the 
cares, riches, and pleasures of this life choke them, 
and they cannot bring forth any fruit to perfec- 
tion. But the seed that falls on good ground are 
those who in an honest and good heart,havingheard 
the word keep it and bring forth fruit in patience.' 
What then is ' the word of God V It is not a book, nor 
an institution. It is the message that Jesus is delivering 
— that God is Love, that to Him every individual soul 
has a value. The realisation that God is a loving Father 
produces spiritual fruit — like produces like, love begets 
love — and the fruit is loving the Father, and loving others 
as He loves us, or as we love ourselves. 

A Postscript 

Is the lamp there 
To be under a bushel 
Or under a bed ? 
And not on a stand ? 
For nothing is hid 
Save to make it more plain; 
And nothing concealed 
Save to bring it to light. 
Who hath ears to hear 
Let him hear ! 



THE KINGDOM IN ACTION 173 

And take heed how ye hear! 
With what measure ye mete 
To you is it measured. 
Yea, more shall be added; 
For to him that hath 
To him shall be given; 
To him that hath not 
From him shall be taken, 
Even that which he hath! 



11 123 
The Mystery of Growth 

*So is the Kingdom of God, as if a man should 
cast seed upon the earth, and should sleep and 
rise night and day and the seed should spring up 
and grow, he knoweth not how. The earth bear- 
eth fruit of herself, first the blade, then the ear, 
then the full corn in the ear. But when the fruit 
is ripe, straightway he putteth forth the sickle, 
because the harvest is come.' 

Mark iv. 26-29 (r.v.). 

'The wind bloweth where it listeth, thou hearest 
the sound thereof but canst not tell whence it 
cometh or whither it goeth. So is everyone that 
is born of the spirit.' The seed in the ground seems 
to rot, but there is a live germ. Earth and moisture 
open the envelope and the life comes forth. Then 
sunshine nourishes the blade, then comes the ear, 
then the full corn in the ear. It is all a mystery. The 
growth of the spiritual life is as mysterious as the life 
of nature. Men do not quarrel over the mystery of 
growth in nature, and yet despite the fact that Jesus 
warned His followers that it was a mystery, and that we 
could no more tell accurately the operation of love in 
the heart, than we could tell the whence and whether 
of the wind. His followers have murdered each other 



174 THE CARPENTER AND HIS KINGDOM 

because growth could not be made uniform! The 
lesson of the parable is the secret, mysterious, and 
unsearchable character of the Kingdom's growth in the 
human heart. 



If 124 
The Kingdom's Power of Expansion 

'Unto what is the Kingdom of God like? and 
whereunto shall I liken it ? It is like unto a grain 
of mustard seed, which a man took, and cast 
into his own garden; and it grew, and became 
a tree; and the birds of the heaven lodged in 
the branches thereof.' 

Luke xiii. 18-19 (R-V.). 

One little candle lights many other candles. One 
heart on fire sets many other hearts on fire, one full 
of joy gives joy to others. Jesus sowed the seed of the 
Kingdom in the hearts of a few men in Galilee, and the 
seed grew, and increased an hundredfold, and it was 
sown again in other hearts in other lands, and the harvest 
is not yet. Every heart is a seed-bed of the Kingdom — 
a centre of life, a source of influence. All that is neces- 
sary is the seed, and the seed is the word of God. The 
expansion of the Kingdom is the expansion and diffusion 
of love. That is the lesson of the grain of mustard seed. 



IF 12s 
The Power of Leaven 

'Whereunto shall I liken the Kingdom of God ? 
It is like unto leaven, which a woman took and 
hid in three measures of meal until it was all 
leavened.' 

Luke xiii. 20-21 (r.v.). 



THE KINGDOM IN ACTION 175 

The parable of the leaven is a development of the 
parable of the mustard seed. The leaven gives life 
to the inert mass. It permeates every atom. Quiet, 
potent, and all-pervasive is the power of the Kingdom. 
Working from within, out, it raises the tone, sweetens 
the atmosphere, and transforms into its likeness whatever 
it comes in contact with. 



IF 126 

The Problem of Good and Evil 

'The Kingdom of heaven is likened unto a man 
that sowed good seed in his field ; but while men 
slept, his enemy came, and sowed tares also 
among the wheat, and went away. But when the 
blades sprang up and brought forth fruit, then 
appeared the tares also. And the servants of the 
householder came and said to him, Sir, didst 
thou not sow good seed in thy field ? whence then 
hath it tares ? And he said unto them, An emeny 
hath done this. And the servants said unto him, 
Wilt thou then that we go and gather them up? 
But he saith, Nay; lest haply while ye gather up 
the tares, ye root up the wheat with them. Let 
both grow, together until the harvest, and in 
the time of the harvest I will say to the reapers, 
Gather up first the tares and bind them in 
bundles to burn them, but gather the wheat 
into my barn.' 

Matthew xiii. 24-30 (r.v.) 

The parable of the tares and the drag net, have 
the same lesson. They are different views on the 
same subject. A net cast into the sea is drawn in upon 
the beach, and the fishermen proceed to divide the 
good from the bad. The good they keep and the bad 
they cast away. In some countries manure is made 
of bad fish. It is a good fertiliser. In the case of the 
tares, an enemy sowed them. They grew up with the 



1 76 THE CARPENTER AND HIS KINGDOM 

wheat and when the servants saw them they informed 
the master and asked whether they should take them 
out? They were instructed to let them grow, and at 
the end of the harvest they would be gathered together 
and burnt in a rubbish heap. 

The light on the Kingdom here is that life is for 
fruit-bearing and not for summary Judgment. It 
is for building not for destruction. It is more than 
likely that the parables of the tares was the last of the 
series, and naturally deals with last things. There 
would be counterfeit citizens in the Kingdom, but to 
root them out would divert attention and hinder the 
building process. There would come a day of reckoning, 
when the chaff would be sifted from the wheat. A 
hypocrite is the architect of his own ruin — let him build, 
is the injunction — he builds on the sand. Let him. alone. 
For the present the practical test is fruit. Later, His 
followers abandoned His breadth of Judgment and 
burnt at the stake not hypocrites and mammon wor- 
shippers, but saints of the Kingdom, who were distin- 
guished for piety and purity of life. The ecclesiastical 
racks and thumb-screws have gone into the discard, for 
the reason that a civilisation more akin to the Kingdom 
than their users, put a stop to their use. History records, 
and not infrequently, the fact that the world with a sword 
in its hand has forced the church to adopt the humanities 
of the Kingdom. 



Responsibility and Judgment 
If 127 

The Unusual Quests 

Preface 

And He said to him 
Also that had bidden Him, 
When thou makest a dinner 



THE KINGDOM IN ACTION 177 

Or a supper, call not 

Thy friends, nor thy brethren, 

Nor thy rich kinsmen, 

Nor rich neighbours; 

Lest haply they bid thee 

Again, and a recompense 

Be made thee. 

But when thou makest 

A feast, bid the poor, 

The maimed, the lame, 

The blind : and thou 

shalt be blessed: 
Because they have not 
The wherewith to recompense 

thee, for thou shalt 
Be recompensed in 
The resurrection of 
The just.' 

Jesus as a guest in the home of a chief Pharisee is 
discoursing on the kind of hospitality that becometh 
the Kingdom. When He had finished what is here 
arranged as a preface to the parable, one of those who 
sat at meat with Him said: 'Blessed is he that shall 
eat bread in the Kingdom of God.' Then He told 
this story: — 

*A certain man made a great supper; and he 
bade many: and he sent forth his servants at 
supper time to say to them that were bidden, 
Come, for all things are now ready. And they 
all with one consent began to make excuses. 
The first said unto then, I have bought a field, 
and I must needs go and see it: I pray thee have 
me excused. And another said, I have bought 
five yoke of oxen, and I go to prove them: I pray 
thee have me excused. And another said, I have 
married a wife, and therefore I cannot come. 
And the servant came and told his lord these 
things. Then the master of the house, being 



i;8 THE CARPENTER AND HIS KINGDOM 

angry, said to his servant, Go out quickly into 
the streets and lanes of the city, and bring in 
hither the poor, and the maimed, and the blind, 
and lame. And the servant said, Lord what 
thou didst command is done, and yet there is 
room. And the lord said unto the servant, Go 
into the highways and hedges and constrain 
them to come in, that my house may be filled. 
For I say unto you, that none of those men 
which were bidden shall taste of my supper.' 

Luke xiv. 16-24 (r.v.). 

There is a democratic atmosphere here that would 
ill suit the unctuous Pharisees of any age. The in- 
struction in the preface is direct and unmistakable. 
Nothing veiled, nothing obscure. It is about the 
only teaching of Jesus over which Christians have 
not fought. All sects are thoroughly agreed on it, 
and all have ignored it. Between the feasts of the 
pagan and the idle rich, and the feasts of the Christians, 
there is absolutely no line of demarcation — no dis- 
tinction. It is unthinkable in modern life that at a 
social function of any sort or description the injunction 
of Jesus should receive any serious consideration. 
This is where the line of clearage between the Kingdom 
and the Church is most marked. If a prophet of God 
with the fire of John the Baptist, and the spiritual 
fervour of Paul should come forth and ask the leading 
members of the modern church why they never even 
pretended to follow Jesus in this matter, he would 
be looked upon as a fool or a madman! When a feast 
is made we call our 'Kinsmen,' our 'friends,' our 
'brethren,' and our 'rich neighbours' (if we think 
they will accept and return the compliment). These 
are the classes of guests that recompense us by asking 
us back. 'Ask the poor, the maimed, the lame, 
and the blind,' Jesus says, 'they will not be able to 
ask you to their homes in return, but I will recom- 
pense you at the resurrection of the just.' 



THE KINGDOM IN ACTION 179 

Simply and pungently Jesus teaches in the parable 
that into the new social order of the Kingdom a rich 
and respectable world will not enter. They may enter 
the church, for no such demands are made on them 
there. Some sects in order to lower the standards and 
admit them, have proclaimed themselves the Kingdom 
and labelled all others as schismatics and heretics. 

We give alms, and provide soup kitchens. We give 
our old clothes. But that falls short of the Kingdom's 
plain command of a democratic spiritual kindness, by 
which we are asked by the Master to invite the really 
poor and needy to our feasts. We cannot get around 
it, save by a Pharisaic casuistry that He encountered in 
the days of His sojourn on earth. 

There is another aspect of this higher teaching 
which, if considered, might give added incentive to 
obey the new law. The spiritually minded, acting 
from the purest motives in inviting the needy, invite 
Jesus Himself, for He said, 'Inasmuch as ye do it 
unto one of the least of these my little ones, ye do 
it unto me.' 



1f 128 

Religion in Rags 

'Now there was a certain rich man, and he was 
clothed in purple and fine linen, faring sumptu- 
ously every day: and a certain beggar named La- 
zarus was laid at his gate, full of -sores, and de- 
siring to be fed with the crumbs that fell from 
the rich man's table; yea, even the dogs came 
and licked his sores. And it came to pass, that 
the beggar died, and that he was carried away 
by the angels into Abraham's bosom; and the 
rich man also died and was buried. And in 
Hades he lifted up his eyes, being in torment, 
and seeth Abraham afar off, and Lazarus in his 



i8o THE CARPENTER AND HIS KINGDOM 

bosom. And he cried, and said, Father Abra- 
ham, have mercy on me, and send Lazarus that 
he may dip the tip of his finger in water, and cool 
my tongue; for I am in anguish in this flame. 
But Abraham said, Son, remember that thou in 
thy life time receivest thy good things, and Laza- 
rus in like manner evil things; but now here he 
is comforted, and thou art in anguish. And be- 
side all this, between us and you there is a great 
gulf fixed, that they which would pass from 
hence to you may not be able, and none may 
cross over from hence to us. And he said, I 
pray thee therefore, father, that thou wouldst 
send him to my father's house; for I have five 
brethren; that he may testify unto them, lest 
they also come unto this place of torment. 
But Abraham saith, They have Moses and the 
prophets; let them hear them. And he said, 
Nay, Father Abraham; but if one go to them 
from the dead they will repent. And he said 
unto him, If they hear not Moses and the proph- 
ets, either, will they be persuaded, if one rises 
from the dead.' 

Luke xvi. 19-31 (r.v.)« 

Lazarus is a concrete illustration of 'Blessed are ye 
poor.' The rich man lived in luxury. Lazarus lay at 
his door, eating crumbs if he could get them, and the 
dogs licked his sores. It's a gruesome picture The. 
two kingdoms are close together. The Kingdom of the 
stomach and the Kingdom of the heart, of purple and 
fine linen and rags. The parable is neither a condemna- 
tion of riches, as such, not a sanction of poverty. It's 
a statement of conditions with an uncovering of the 
foundations on which they rest. Social conditions may 
rob a man of foods and clothes, but they cannot deprive 
him of the Kingdom of God. The parable is a highly 
coloured picture of Jewish religious thought. It is not 
a guide to a future life. 'Abraham's Bosom' is a pictur- 
esque expression describing the abode of the blest. _ The 



THE KINGDOM IN ACTION 181 

disparity on earth is equalised in heaven, but the 
decisions governing the future are made here. The 
lesson is plain. The basic values are appraised. In 
justice, greed and wanton luxury have an end. The 
mills of God grind slowly — but they grind. The rich 
man's first thought for others comes to him in hell. 
Even then he thinks of his own class — not the class 
whose comfort comes largely from the dogs on the street. 
He thinks of himself and his kinsmen. He wants them 
warned, and for himself he asks that Lazarus provide a 
drop of cold water to cool his tongue. He is told that 
if his kinsmen hear not Moses and the prophets neither 
will they believe though one rise from the dead. 

No fine spun web of doctrine can be woven out of 
the details of this story. A broad general principle is 
laid down — a principle as applicable now as then. 
Dives still lives. So does Lazarus. Hovels and palaces, 
rags, and fine linen, riches and poverty are now, as then, 
in close juxtaposition. Dives was respectable and rich, 
and undoubtedly religious, but he went to hell, neverthe- 
less. Lazarus was sore and poor and outcast but he 
belonged to the Kingdom. That is the lesson. Over 
the gulf which divides men into two camps — the haves 
and have-nots, the hungry and the overglutted, a bridge 
is being built — the bridge is Justice. Citizens of the 
Kingdom, both rich and poor are the builders. Mean- 
time Jesus stands with the poor. The Kingdom is theirs. 



m 129 

Lamps Without Oil 



*Then shall the Kingdom of heaven be likened 
unto ten virgins, which took their lamps, and 
went forth to meet the bridegroom. And five of 
them were foolish, and five were wise. For the 
foolish, when they took their lamps, took no 
oil with them: but the wise took oil in their 



iS2 THE CARPENTER AND HIS KINGDOM 

vessels with their lamps. Now while the bride- 
groom tarried, they all slumbered and slept. 
But at midnight there is a cry, Behold the bride- 
groom! Come ye forth to meet him. Then all 
those virgins arose and trimmed their lamps. 
And the foolish said unto the wise. Give us of 
your oil; for our lamps are going out. But the 
wise answered, saying, Peradventure there will 
be not enough for us and you: go ye rather to 
them that sell, and buy for yourselves. .And 
while they went away to buy, the bridegroom 
came; and they that were ready went in with 
him to the marriage feast: and the door was 
shut. .Afterwards came also the other virgins, 
saying, Lord, lord, open unto us. But he an- 
swered and said, Verily I say unto you, I know 
you not, Watch, therefore, for ye know not the 
day nor the hour.' 

Matthew xxv. 1-13 (r,v.). 

In the Kingdom the Bridegroom comes every day: 
The parable warns us to be ready. When 'they all 
forsook him. and fled. 1 Their lamps had gone out, 
Peter had no oil when he denied him. Thoughtlessness, 
heedlessness, and neglect of the things that matter, may 
not damn us but they empty our lives of the joy of 
service. When love is on guard the sentry is not asleep. 
When the angel cf opportunity comes love stands at 
the door, ready to open it. Eternal vigilance is the 
price of liberty of soul as well as in the march of the 
democratic ideal down the centuries. In the Kingdom, 
the word is 'Watch.' Of all epitaphs — 'too late' is the 
saddest. 

r 130 

The Buried Opportunity 

'A man going into another country, called his 
own servants, and delivered unto them his goods. 
And unto one he gave five talents, to another two, 



THE KINGDOM IN ACTION 183 

to another one; each according to his several 
abilities; and he went on his journey. Straight- 
way he that received the five talents went and 
traded with them, and made other five talents. 
In like manner he that received the two gained 
other two. But he that received the one went 
away and digged in the earth, and hid his lord's 
money. Now after a long time the lord of those 
servants cometh, and maketh a reckoning with 
them. And he that received the five talents came 
and brought other five talents, saying, Lord, thou 
deliver est unto me five talents: lo, I have gained 
other five talents. His lord said unto him, Well 
done thou good and faithful servant: thou hast 
been faithful over a few things, I will set thee 
over many things: enter thou into the joy of thy 
lord. And he also that received the two talents 
came and said, Lord, thou deliver est unto me 
two talents: lo, I have gained other two talents. 
His lord said unto him, Well done, good and 
faithful servant, thou hast been faithful over a 
few things, I will set thee over many things: 
enter thou into the joy of thy lord. And he also 
that received the one talent came and said, Lord, 
I knew thee that thou art a hard man, reaping 
where thou didst not sow, and gathering where 
thou didst not scatter: and I was afraid, and 
went away and hid thy talent in the earth: lo, 
thou hast thine own. But his lord answered and 
said unto him, Thou wicked and slothful ser- 
vant, thou knewest I reap where I sowed not, 
and gather where I did not scatter; thou oughtest 
therefore to have put my money to the bankers, 
and at my coming I should have received back 
mine own with interest. Take ye away therefore 
the talent from him, and give it unto him that 
hath ten talents. For unto every one that hath 
shall be given, and he shall have abundance; but 
from him that hath not, even that which he 



i8 4 THE CARPENTER AND HIS KINGDOM 

hath shall be taken away. And cast ye out the 
unprofitable servant into outer darkness: there 
shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth.' 

Matthew xxv. 14-30 (r.v.). 

The parable of the talents is not 'a handy guide to 
safe investments/ Not infrequently it has been so 
understood. Because Jesus takes a moneylender as 
the basis of his story He has been understood as en- 
dorsing the business. The story is one of responsibility 
and judgment. It is an illustration — not a commenda- 
tion. The talents of the Kingdom are not coins but 
gifts and graces. A gift or grace unused is buried. 
When used they multiply. 

When the man with one talent told his master 
that he reaped where he had not sown and gathered 
where he had not scattered, he told him the truth. 
The capitalist acknowledges the truth, but expostulates 
and says: 'Yes, of course, but you knew that when 
I entrusted you with the talent! you knew that, when 
I went away, why then did you assume the re- 
sponsibility? Why didn't you give it to my banker, 
so that when I returned I would have had my principal 
and my usury?' The parable truth is quite obvious. 
In the Kingdom we are entrusted with talents of 
another kind. With even the smallest we assume 
responsibility. If we use what is given, we are given 
more and greater. For every gift and grace we bury 
or misuse, we are called to judgment. Every citizen of 
the Kingdom is judge of his own stewardship, but there 
will come a final summing up of what we have done or 
left undone. 

The money lender and the man with one talent were 
both actuated by selfish motives. The gifts of the 
Kingdom are profitable, but they have no cash value. 
The king is not a userer. He scatters abroad and 
gathers not for Himself. He sows for His friends to 
reap. In one case it was a cold business proposition — 
in the other it was a community of interest in things 
spiritual. It was an investment of influence, of love 
and kindness. 



CHAPTER XII 
The Emotions of the Master 

Anger 

The anger of Jesus was a passionate resentment. The 
profanation of the Temple made Him angry and He 
whipped the profaners out of its precincts. He was 
angry at the Hypocrisy of the Pharisees and He used 
a vocabulary that must have stung them to the quick. 
"Ye compass sea and land to make one proselyte, 
and when ye have made him, he is two-fold more 
the child of Hell than yourselves !" That is anger 
and perhaps tinged with bitterness, but the element of 
revenge is absent. His heart burned like a name of 
fire for the true, the good and the beautiful, and the 
consciousness that the custodians of morals were 
"White Sepulchres" made Him angry. The leaders of 
the people were extortioners, traitors to the highest and 
oppressors of the weak. His anger therefore was but a 
phase of His burning love. 

His capacity for anger was continually tested, but 
seldom did He deviate from His calm dignity. When 
He burst forth in violent indignation He struck terror 
to the hearts of hypocrites and oppressors and at the 
same time enthused and gave courage to the common 
people who thronged Him everywhere. 

"Ye blind guides which strain at a gnat, and 
swallow a camel." 
"Ye fools and blind! 
"Woe unto you, Scribes and Pharisees, Hypo- 

185 



186 THE CARPENTER AND HIS KINGDOM 

crites, for ye make clean the outside of the cup and 
platter, but within they are full of extortion and 
excess. 

"Ye serpents, ye generation of vipers, how can 
ye escape the damnation of hell? 

"Scribes, Pharisees, Hypocrites, Ye shut up the 
Kingdom of Heaven against men, for ye neither go 
in yourselves neither suffer ye them that are 
entering to go in. 

"Depart from me ye cursed!" 

As concentrated, penetrative, burning invective, the 
above has seldom been equalled. It is vituperation but 
not abuse. It is castigation and verbal damnation but 
without either pique or petulance. 

Anger is a two edged sword and a dangerous weapon 
in the hands of ordinary men. It is an emotion which, 
when indulged, poisons and corrupts the motive that 
prompts it. Often it blinds the reason and becomes in 
essence the thing it storms against. Anger can only be 
justified when it springs from a heart aflame with 
holiness. With Jesus it was indignant resentment to 
the oppression of the poor, and the shams of a perverted 
religious system. With us it is more often just common 
ordinary bad temper, or a gnarled disposition, and we 
exercise the emotion only when our personal comfort is 
in danger of disturbance. 

W^hen He was reviled, He reviled not again. He took 
little notice of personal attacks upon Himself. They 
accused Him of gluttony, Sabbath breaking, wine- 
bibbing and many other things. To these accusations 
He replied with dignity, courtesy and calmness. With 
Him love and anger were opposite poles of the same 
thing. His anger was love outraged and hot with 
indignation. 

In expressing the emotion of anger He was in direct 
personal contact with His antagonists. He cleansed the 
Temple single handed; but the force exerted was spiritual. 
It was the moral majesty of His anger that drove the 
money changers out. It was a loving heart that tipped 



THE EMOTIONS OF THE MASTER 187 

His tongue with fire. The Temple was His father's 
house of prayer. They had made it a den of thieves. 
Yet anger was a mere incident to His ministry. Love 
! was the dominant note — and its appeal never failed with 
I the multitude. His anger was a necessity, not only to 
J rebuke wrong, but to demonstrate to His followers and 
j to the world that He was Human! 

He was no alarmist. No demagogue — no inciter to 
violence, no mob leader, but the God-man in white 
anger shattering the shams with a voice that smote the 
conscience of men with terrific force. He lived in the 
midst of a crowd. He walked the streets. Anyone 
could interview Him at any time. His life was like a 
broad stream of quiet waters giving life and healing to 
the multitude, but when the river reached the rocks of 
sham, unbelief, oppression and lies, it formed a foaming 
cataract and that cataract was His anger. 

If 132 
Compassion 

'If I had to be tried for a crime, and I could select 
a jury to try me,' said a literary man to me once, 'I 
would rather select a jury of publicans or a jury of 
harlots than a jury of either clergymen or deacons.' 

'Why?' I asked. 

'Because, from my experience, I am sure I would 
find more of the compassion of Jesus in these groups 
than I would find in Churchmen,' was the reply. 

How common such an extraordinary idea may be 
is hard to tell, but it is neither negligible nor unique. 
It jars our complacency as the words of Jesus must 
have jarred the good elders of Jerusalem when Jesus 
told them that the harlots would enter the Kingdom 
ahead of them. 

Compassion is the sharing of another's burden. It 
is looking at the situation from the sufferer's point 
of view. More than that, it is seeing as God sees. 
Jesus had compassion on the multitude. When they 



1 88 THE CARPENTER AND HIS KINGDOM 

were hungry He fed them — fed them all, good, bad,, 
and indifferent. He had compassion on the sick and 
healed them. To the harlot He said, 'Neither do I t 
condemn thee, go and sin no more.' He was not, 
blind to sin. He knew its destructive power, but He' 
also knew the long pathways along which these human 
failings had travelled. He saw men and women as 
dupes and victims struggling under a foreign yoke, a 
false religious system or a perverted nature within. In 
giving compassion, He gave Himself. He saw clear 
through Judas, but He gave Judas his chance. He 
reminded the woman at the well about her past only 
because she was quibbling about things that did not 
matter. It was not His custom to remind men and 
women of their past. 

Sceptics, crooked business men, rationalists, traitors, 
ritualists, prostitutes, thieves, lawyers, the halt, the 
maimed, the blind, the bereaved, and the broken- 
hearted, were all the recipients of His compassion. 
He was called 'the friend of sinners.' He gave rest to 
the weary, food to the hungry, and hope to those in 
despair. Around the weaknesses in men He wrapped 
His strength. In the sheepfold of humanity He was 
partial to the sheep that were black. The Son of God 
had time to go about doing good. We have adapted 
labour-saving machinery in the things of the spirit. 
Much of our compassion is institutionalised. We 
arrange it in water-tight compartments, and dole it 
out in packets to those who are 'worthy.' The extra- 
ordinary compassion of the Master is of course explained 
away by the theologians. We are told that He mixed 
His communion with condemnation, but we are not told 
when or where. To read some of the commentators, 
one would imagine that Jesus cudgelled the sinner with 
one hand, while He embraced him with the other. The 
perplexed philosophers cannot quite make it out. His 
compassion does not quite fit into their cut-and-dried 
scheme of salvation. If Jesus did to-day what He did 
then, our best people would say He was encouraging 
crime! They did not understand Him then. They 



THE EMOTIONS OF THE MASTER 189 

would not understand Him now. The poor and the 
needy and the outcast understood and loved Him, and 
they would appreciate Him as much to-day as they did 
then. 

'Who gives himself with his alms gives three. 
Himself, his hungry brother, and me.' 

II 133 
Wonder 

The word 'marvel' has long since lost the force it 
possessed when the Scholars in the Jerusalem Chamber 
used it to express the wonder of Jesus. Out of com- 
parative obscurity came the word 'Wonder' to take 
its place. The emotion of wonder is made up of many 
sensations. According to our word-makers, wonder 
expresses less than astonishment and much less than 
amazement. It differs from admiration in not being 
necessarily accompanied with love, esteem, or appro- 
bation. Common usage, however, has allied wonder 
with astonishment, surprise, awe, horror, and also 
with intense admiration. 

Jesus wondered at the unbelief of the multitude. 
He wondered at the Faith of a Roman soldier. In 
one case the emotion was accompanied with a strong 
feeling of admiration — in the other, by sadness. In 
the solitudes His wonder was mingled with awe. 

In a life of such spiritual adventure, wonder plays 
a large part. The elements of surprise, astonishment, 
and unexpectedness enter in. He wondered at the 
aptness of some disciples and at the dullness and obtuse- 
ness of others. 

As I write there comes to my mind a scene in France. 

On the way from Doulers to Cambrai in a motor-car 
one day, my driver stopped at an army garage in a 
small village. Two men were engaged in an argument. 
It appeared that one of them had been sent from Corps 
H.Q. to do repair work. There were seven cars in 



190 THE CARPENTER AND HIS KINGDOM 

'dry dock,' all of them in need of repair and useless. 
The man in charge could not repair them. He was 
there as caretaker — to see that nobody ran away with 
them. Here was a mechanic sent to get them into use 
again, but the caretaker refused to let him touch tnem. 
He questioned the mechanic's authority, then he ques- 
tioned the source of it. They were both soldiers, they 
both knew that cars were in great demand, but red tape | 
and stupidity stood in the way. We gave the mechanic i 
a lift on his way back. 'Did you ever see anything so 
stupid?' he asked. 

The wonder of Jesus was of just such a character. 
He came to give facility, power, and usefulness to the 
machinery of life, and men haggled and quibbled over it. 
Compared to the casuistry of the Jewish ritual, the 
message of Jesus was the essence of simplicity. The 
multitude knew that it worked. They saw examples 
of the power in the lives of fishermen, tax-gatherers, 
and nondescripts. He was not asking them to give up 
the Temple or betray allegiance. Dry ritual had failed, 
stereotyped ceremonies added no zest to the dull routine 
of daily life. Jesus offered beauty for ashes, the oil of 
joy for the spirit of heaviness, and they looked at Him 
as dull oxen look at a dog with suspicion and fear. 

So He wondered at their unbelief, and His wonder 
was mingled with sadness and surprise. It was the 
wonder of a man whose food is refused by the starving. 

The wonder superinduced by the discovery of Faith 
where it was least expected, was accompanied by glad- 
ness and surprise. The Jews had a spiritual background. 
The Roman religion was barren and without hope. 
Where He expected warmth and receptivity, He found 
coldness and disdain. Here was a member of a foreign 
race, a soldier of an army whose very presence was a 
symbol of subjection and slavery, and in this man, Jesus 
found greater faith than He had found even amongst 
His immediate followers, and He marvelled with glad- 
ness at the discovery. To less discerning minds, the 
Master's estimate of the Centurion must in itself have 
been a cause for wonder. He alone could see the working 



THE EMOTIONS OF THE MASTER 191 

of the Roman mind which gave such a quick response 
to the facts as they presented themselves to His sense 
perceptions, but his interpretation of the influence 
of Jesus was an act of faith that transcended the senses. 
'O little faithed ones,' He said when His followers 
were panic-stricken with fear. A moment before, 
they were calm, and like ships in a harbour of refuge. 
Now in a moment of physical danger they resembled 
rudderless small craft at the mercy of a storm. He 
marvelled at their instability. As they went up or 
down in the scale of spiritual values, He went with 
them in sadness or gladness, completely human as 
they were, in physical pain or pleasure. 

The emotionless man is an expressionless man. The 
emotions of Jesus stand out as full expressions of the 
life behind them. The New Testament writers were 
engrossed with what they considered the larger aspects 
of His life and teachings. His emotions were mentioned 
incidentally. To men of these later days they are all 
important. They are clues to His humanity and they 
touch and influence the emotional life of mankind. 



If 134 
Joy 

'Happiness,* Dr. Johnson said, 'is the multiplicity 
of agreeable consciousness.' An element of that con- 
sciousness is the pleasure of having an aim in life. The 
will of God was the supreme aim of the life of Jesus. 
Whether He was sad or glad, exalted in spirit, or cast 
down, whatever the varying circumstances of life 
brought to Him, that consciousness remained as the 
foundation of life and the background of all His varied 
activities. 

Joy is an emotion of pleasure. In common life we 
associate the word with exultation, or with the sudden 
gratification of desire. When we think of the joy of 
Jesus, we are somehow unable to think of it as anything 



i 9 2 THE CARPENTER AND HIS KINGDOM 

but happiness intensified to such a degree, that it suffuses 
with the radiance of peace and love the entire personality. 

If the juxtaposition of dissimilar propositions is 
the basis of laughter, I am sure Jesus must have laughed 
£nd laughed often. The New Testament writers seem 
to have considered laughter as unbecoming to the serious 
Messianic life, and that thought, that impression, has 
been so thoroughly hammered into our minds that we 
have excluded it from our conception of the Master, 
and to that extent have taken away from Him that which 
is normal in every human life. 

In the Old Testament God laughs. So do Abraham 
and Sarah. In the New Testament Jesus promises 
laughter for tears. In both we get abundant records 
of how the race boiled over in wickedness, but scant 
reference to joyousness bubbling over into laughter. 

The joy of Jesus is described explicitly and with a 
definiteness that leaves no room for doubt. 

That He was a man of sorrow, and acquainted with 
grief, is in no wise incompatible with the fact that He 
was a man of joy. 

There is probably no better exemplification in modern 
times of how the elements of joy and sadness may mix 
in a human personality, than in the life of Abraham 
Lincoln. A great artist who spent six months in the 
White House, said that Lincoln's face was the saddest 
face he had ever seen. And yet in the saddest moments 
of his country's peril, when its destiny hung in the 
balance, he would tell a funny story to divert the sorrow 
of those around him. 

To make a catalogue of virtues — Trust, Hope, Obe- 
dience, etc., and say that the joy of Jesus was based on 
them, looks trivial, theological, and weak. The life of 
Jesus was no psychological chest of drawers ticketed 
with these things. 

As a Galilean carpenter, builder, and cabinet-maker, 
He was a workman who needed not to be ashamed 
of His work. That in itself makes a solid foundation 
for joy. But when He left the carpenter's bench. 
He went out into the larger mission of life in the con- 



THE EMOTIONS OF THE MASTER 193 

sciousness that His life was of the same texture as the 
life of God, and His joy deepened and widened as it 
flowed into the lives of men. 

After that, His sadness was the flitting of a dark 
shadow over the face of the sunlit sea. An abiding 
joy became the essence of temperament — an emotion 
touched with the divine and an expression of an im- 
mortal love. 

This joy He gave His followers. This joy becomes 
the possession of all men whose main purpose is linked 
with Him. Joy in Him became contagious. It was 
as if He had opened a private door and walked into 
men's hearts. When full of His Joy, they spoke with 
His tongue, thought with His mind, and loved with 
His heart. 



IF 135 

Genialness 

There is a species of rose cultivated and brought 
to perfection by cutting away all buds on the stem 
but one. To this single bud goes the nourishment 
intended for the many. Something of that nature 
happens in the lives of some great saints. Their burning 
zeal for a single ideal burns up everything else in their 
natures. 

Men of one idea are not infrequently censorious, 
over-critical, and crabbed in social relations. The 
world owes much to the men who fought for great 
ideals, but few of us would like to live with them. I 
glory in their achievements, but Jesus and Abraham 
Lincoln are the ones I would have liked to live with. 
The Master was genial. Geniality is a joyous social 
temperament. It is cheerfulness with a generous ad- 
mixture of sympathy, cordiality, and helpfulness. 

The New Testament writers in describing the path- 
way of the soul, make it very largely a way of weeping. 
They give us an atmosphere of gloom, penetrated only 



i 9 4 THE CARPENTER AND HIS KINGDOM 

here and there with sunshine. We know that Paul 
had a thorn in the flesh but we have no evidence that 
he ever laughed, nor have we any hint that he was 
genial. 

Toplady, the author of 'Rock of Ages,' cudgelled 
the saintly Fletcher and described John Wesley, a still 
more saintly saint, as : ' An old fox tarred and feathered. ' 
Paul, who wrote the greatest definition of Love ever 
written, had a passage at arms with Peter. Details 
are lacking as to the precise language used, but it seems 
to have been quite hot. 

Jesus attended a wedding. His presence there is 
recorded, not so much to record His genial intercourse 
at a joyful feast as to prove Him a wonderworker. The 
modern mind is infinitely more interested in the fact 
that His genial personality fused genially and har- 
moniously with all sorts and conditions of men and women 
and little children. 

When Matthew Levi celebrated his conversion by 
gathering together a nondescript group at a supper, 
Jesus was there to make them feel comfortable and at 
home. He never waited until they thought as He 
thought or did as He did. He loved the multitude 
and He loved them individually. He loved the rich 
young ruler even as He looked upon him. 

Jesus had a genius for geniality. It was the charm 
of His genial companionship that bound to Him His 
followers. He is reported to have said that His followers 
would do greater things than He had done Himself. 
In all the Christian centuries we have records of very 
few who were noted for geniality. St Francis is prob- 
ably more like him in this respect than any other. 

That He should be imbued with the sublime idea of 
tenderly and lovingly changing the heart of the human 
race toward God and yet have time and inclination to 
be genial to folks around His shop, on the roadsides 
and on the streets is an eternal paradox. 

Men who have no time for geniality have little time 
to be followers of Jesus. The separation of things into 
compartments of sacred and profane was unknown to 



THE EMOTIONS OF THE MASTER 195 

Him. All things were sacred when put to a sacred use. 
The best and finest that was in Him spoke to a kindred 
value in the hearts of men around Him. He saw good 
in men who could not see it in themselves. 

At this candle of geniality, men lit their little lights 
and went out to light others and the light continues 
to dispel the darkness from the hearts of men all over 
the world. 



CHAPTER XIII 

THR HUMANITY OF THE MASTER 
f 136 

The Poor 

There was a militancy in the propaganda of Jesus 
when He championed the poor. In all periods of the 
Christian Era, His words were toned down, but at 
this distance of time they still cut like a rapier. None 
of His sayings have received such pruning, toning, 
and twisting as the saying, 'The poor ye have always 
with you.' It has been almost universally inter- 
preted to mean a justification of poverty. Parasites 
and exploiters in all times have used the saying as a 
cloak to cover their meanness. 

A box of precious ointment had been broken and 
used to anoint Him. Some grateful heart found in 
that a way to show gratitude. There was a murmur 
about waste. A critic suggested that it might have 
been sold and the money given to the poor. 

'Why trouble the woman,' He said, 'the poor you 
have with you always. Me you have not always 
with you.' 

This simple statement of fact has been interpreted 
to mean the announcement of a law of nature, or a 
dictum of God. 

When He said it was as easy for a camel to go through 
the eye of a needle as for a rich man to enter the Kingdom 
of Heaven, the commentators enlarged the eye of the 
needle to the proportions of a wicket gate. 

In one instance, responsibility for poverty is laid 

196 



THE HUMANITY OF THE MASTER 197 

by inference on the shoulders of the Almighty, and 
in the other, the difficulties encountered by the rich, 
in hanging on to all that is best and most comforting 
in both worlds, have been reduced to a negligible con- 
sideration. 

Jesus had an affectionate regard for those who had 
reached the bedrock condition of human misery. If 
this is not clearly understood in the twentieth century, 
the upper classes made no mistake about it in the first 
He was stigmatised as a friend of the rabble. He was, 
and took no umbrage at being so considered. The 
hungry multitude was to Him the ripe harvest of the 
Kingdom. 

In His matchless picture of the great judgment, He 
identifies Himself with the poor, and delcares that a 
denial of the essentials of life, to His friends, is equivalent 
to a denial of the Father. His ' good news ' had an eco- 
nomic background. His advocacy of the poor weakened 
the authority of the civil and religious exploiters. The 
promulgation of new religious principles, or the rejuvena- 
tion of old ones, would have created no furore in 
Jerusalem, but a declaration of the right to bread was a 
disturbing factor. 

The prevailing message of organised religion, at the 
beginning of the nineteenth century, was one of authority, 
obedience, gratitude for alms, and servile subordination. 

The one thing dreaded in that day, was the inoculation 
of the English working man's mind with the sacramental 
phrases of the French Revolution. At a time when one 
of every seven Englishmen was a pauper, Parliament 
voted a million pounds for the erection of Churches in 
which to preach submission to the superior classes. 

Jails and gibbets, racks and tortures, magistrates, 
lay and clerical, with all the terror of the law, were 
not sufficient to keep the poor in order, so it was deter- 
mined to make a larger use of religion, to enforce oppres- 
sion. 

The Pharisees of the early part of the nineteenth 
century took the same attitude toward the teachings 
of Jesus as the Pharisees of Jerusalem took, when they 



i 9 8 THE CARPENTER AND HIS KINGDOM 

heard them from His lips. Had Jesus lived in England 
at the time, He would have been the friend of the factory 
slave, the defender of the little chimney sweeps, and the 
associate of all who groaned and suffered under the galling 
yoke of a civilisation that was called by His name. 

Renan is far removed from the facts when He de- 
scribes Jesus as loving poverty for poverty's sake. 
There never was and never could be any 'charm' at- 
tached to 'pious mendacity,' nor was it ever in the mind 
of the Master as a 'virtue.' Poverty is a curse. It 
always was, and will be as long as it exists. Lack of the 
essential food, clothing, and shelter turns man back into 
the animal condition of fang and beak and claw. It 
forces men to concentrate their minds exclusively on 
material things. The human soul that survives such 
condition, survives, not by virtue of poverty, but in 
spite of it. 

If poverty was a virtue, why should Jesus castigate 
the rich for their exploitation? He loved the poor 
because He found they possessed the values that made 
more apt disciples in the Kingdom. They were simple- 
minded, humble-hearted, and open-souled. They could 
see more clearly the celestial vision. From the poor, 
therefore, He selected His apostles, His friends, and 
His intimate acquaintances. 



11 137 
The Sick 

Jesus was not a mere medical missionary in Galilee, 
but He healed disease. His own appraisement on 
healing was not high. It was incidental. Physical 
distress was as real to Him as moral distress. Disease 
was largely a result of a low state of vitality, exacting 
toil, poor food, uncertainty, worry, care, and ignorance 
of life. Jesus had a genius for sympathy, and it was 
never better expressed than in healing disease. The 
blind and the lame and the tormented came to Him. 



THE HUMANITY OF THE MASTER 199 

They professed no faith, they made no claims. He 
asked for none. To be in need of whatever He could 
give was the open door to relief. 

The action of one mind upon another, which results 
in healing, has become so common, that it no longer 
excites wonder. Jesus, endowed with a personality 
that changed by mere contact the lives of men, was 
not hedged about by ordinary limitations. No genius 
ever is. He possessed the power and used it. So did 
His apostles later. The custodians of the truth in 
later years lost that power. What they lost, they 
denied others could possess, but with the extension 
of knowledge, the development of psychology, and 
a clearer vision of life and its meaning, have made 
us familiar with what, in the first century, seemed a 
setting aside of the laws of nature. As men realise 
their place in the scheme of things, the miracles of 
to-day become the commonplaces of to-morrow. To 
the distressed of body and mind, Jesus ministered. 
'Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy 
laden, and I will give you rest,' was an invitation of 
peculiar joy and relief to those afflicted with ailments 
of a bodily nature. There was no magic in the cures. 
It was a thought-writing of a divine personality on the 
mind of another. By the spoken word, by the power 
of suggestion, by an act of communion, the will of the 
Master acted upon the will of the recipient, and the 
body responded to the union of souls. 

Personal contact was unnecessary then, as it is now. 
Distance mattered nothing. Thought waves travelled, 
and, as healing agencies, functioned in correlating and 
harmonising the body and spirit of man. He gave His 
apostles power to do likewise. He told them how, and 
in what condition, it could be done. He is doing that 
now, but no longer exclusively through those who bear 
His name. 

'The healing of the sick,' says Renan, 'was considered 
one of the signs of the Kingdom of God, and was always 
associated with the emancipation of the poor.' 

' Who would dare to say, that in many cases 



200 THE CARPENTER AND HIS KINGDOM 

the touch of a superior being is not equal to all the 
resources of pharmacy? The mere pleasure of seeing 
Him cures. He gives only a smile, or a hope, but these 
are not in vain.' 

There was a time when this statement of Renan 
would have found no quarter in the scientific world. 
To-day, the foremost scientists have left the timid 
reasoner a long way behind. Psychology has opened 
up new avenues of approach to the secret of soul power, I 
of which Jesus was the supreme manifestation. 

In healing, He was no mere thaumaturgic or exorcist. ! 
He healed at times in spite of Himself. It was His j 
intense sympathy with those in pain, that led Him to 
ease the poor of their physical discomforts. It was a 
phase of the great moral revolution, by which he raised i 
the proletariat to standing room on the continent of 
the grace of God. 



If 138 
Victims 



Israel's God was from time immemorial the defender 
of the poor and oppressed. 

Jesus was the champion of all classes of social and 
ecclesiastical victims. If the Jewish law stood in the 
way of doing good on the Sabbath, then Jesus came, 
not to fulfil it but to smash it. When taken to task for 
being natural on the Sabbath, He told the blind leaders 
of the blind that the Sabbath was made for man, and 
not man for the Sabbath. 

The early Christians clung to the Jewish view of the 
Sabbath, nevertheless, and organised Christianity of 
the present day, despite the words of Jesus, takes the 
same view. In some instances, the Christians out- 
pharisee the Pharisees. Men were victims of a letter- 
worship that excluded God. From this yoke of Sabbatic 
bondage, Jesus relieved those who followed Him. To 
those carried along on the ground swell of discontent, He 



THE HUMANITY OF THE MASTER 201 

was ever a source of comfort. To men and women who 
suffered under a galling servitude of empty religious 
observances, He did not bring an equally burdensome 
network of abstruse creeds and doctrines. It was the 
condition of the human soul that sanctified or profaned 
the day. 

The victims of hunger He fed: the victims of religious 
servility He emancipated: the heart-broken He relieved 
by a cure for care. Buddha offered a religion of de- 
liverance from feeling, which was to rescue men from the 
pain of existence. Jesus recognised suffering as an 
inevitable element in life. He taught men how to bear 
it. He taught them by bearing it Himself. He touched 
life at every angle, and made Himself at one with the 
race. 

He made no onslaught on money as such, but He 
emancipated the victim — such as Matthew Levi — who 
had tried and failed to find in it soul satisfaction. 

If we are asked what His attitude toward work was, 
we reply that He was a carpenter. If we are asked why 
He made no attack on the Jewish idea of women, we 
recall the tender associations with Bethany, the con- 
versations with women as with men. The claim that 
the improved status of women in the modern world is 
due wholly to Christianity is not valid. Many in- 
fluences, having no connection with organised religion, 
have had a part in woman's emancipation. Women in 
old Japan and ancient Egypt had far superior status than 
they had under organised Christianity up to quite recent 
times. But the attitude of Jesus toward women was 
exactly as it was toward men. The followers of Jesus 
at no time, in the so-called Christian era, have followed 
His example. Millions of women in Christian countries 
have not yet arrived at the status possessed by women 
in ancient Egypt, where judicially she was the equal of 
man, and could dispose of her own property. 

Even to the most degraded of women, Jesus showed a 
sympathy and tenderness that would be as startling now 
as it was then. 

In the third decade of the twentieth century, we are 



202 THE CARPENTER AND HIS KINGDOM 

still debating whether women shall be given an equality 
with men in the Church, and the debate is likely to 
continue for many decades to come. Moses and Paul 
are our guides in this matter — not Jesus. 

To Him, the human touch was more potent than 
law. Love is the supreme peacemaker. He would 
have us forgive our enemies, for they too are victims, 
and to return good for evil is the only way to their 
emancipation. 'Father, forgive them, for they know 
not what they do.' In His thought- writing, He tried 
to produce in men the values He best exemplified in 
His own life. 

I met a man once who reminded me of Jesus. He 
was considered a fool by his contemporaries. He was 
a doctor of medicine who inherited a million. He gave 
up his profession, and he gave the million to a board of 
trustees, to be administered for the use of the community 
in which the money was made. He made a legal trans- 
fer in such a way that he could never touch the money 
himself, nor have anything to say about its expenditure. 
He worked with his hands for a living, so that he might 
identify himself with the victims of an un-Christian social 
order. He goes from city to city, living in the cheapest 
lodgings, so that he may be one of the ' hobos ' or tramps 
and help them by advice. He has no money to give. 
He gives himself — a fool for the Master's sake, throwing 
away his life, in order that he may find it. 

This characteristic attitude of personal touch with the 
victims that still makes Jesus the wonder of the world 
we now delegate to slum missionaries and curates. The 
more eminent a man becomes in matters intellectual, 
the more honours, preferments, and emoluments he 
receives, the higher the walls that separate him from that 
personal touch with the sort of people of whom Jesus 
was the champion and personal friend. 

II 139 
Children 

Just before His departure for Galilee some faithful 
ones brought their children to receive His blessing. 



THE HUMANITY OF THE MASTER 203 

The disciples, probably getting ready for the journey, 
rebuked these parents, but Jesus said: — 

'Suffer little children to come unto me, and 

forbid them not! for of such is the Kingdom of 

heaven. Truly I tell you, who will not receive 

the Kingdom of God as a little child, shall not 

enter therein!' 

To this account Mark adds a touch — beautiful and 
characteristic: 'He took them in His arms and blessed 
them,' Matthew omits this but adds a 'child saying.' 
Just as His love for children has been a fruitful theme in 
art and literature for many centuries, it has furnished 
orators and preachers with inspiration — a shallow in- 
spiration that ended very largely in words. 

The century in which England revolutionised her 
methods of producing goods was a century of dishonour 
to English children. It was a reign of terror, inhumanity, 
and savagery for the children of the poor. 

The church had abandoned the guardianship of souls. 
She had become a mere cog in the new industrial machine. 
There were two theories of conduct toward the poor. 
One was that the spiritual equality of believers de- 
manded a fair consideration for the weak, here and now. 
That theory was held by the few to whom the teachings 
of Jesus were still vital. The other theory was that in 
the next world the poor would be recompensed for their 
miseries in this one. That was the prevailing theory, 
overwhelmingly so, and had the sanction of the church. 
By virtue of that theory and under that sanction a 
species of barbarism was perpetrated on the children of 
the poor that would make savages blush. 

The subjection of weak, underfed, and underclothed 
bodies to the overstrain of degrading physical exhaustion, 
was accompanied by mental starvation. It was the 
belief of the governing classes that the less the poor 
knew the better they worked. The right of a child to 
knowledge was denied. Education bills for a hundred 
years were defeated by the leading statesmen of both 
political parties. 'Pass this Education Bill,' said one 
of the greatest statesmen of the nineteenth century, 
'and you will make England a nation of infidels.' 



2o 4 THE CARPENTER AND HIS KINGDOM 

A few zealous souls like Hannah More believed that 
the poor children should know the Bible in order that 
they might know something about God and Hannah 
More's God was a Deity who demanded obedience, 
gratitude, and order. So she organised classes and 
taught them the Book of Genesis. 

We have made vast improvements in the last thirty 
or forty years, but we are yet a long way from an order 
of which Jesus could give His approval. In the cotton 
communities of the United States we still have the 
oppression of little children. We are still grinding 
profits out of them at a time when they should be 
attending school. The rise of the working class on 
both sides of the Atlantic brings us gradually nearer the 
ideals of the Master. 

The barbarous treatment of the children of the poor 
by people of the English-speaking world, was not wholly 
due to the lust for gain. That had much to do with it, 
but the loving tenderness of Jesus towards children has 
been lost sight of. It has been smothered by the 
legalism of Moses and the theological doctrines of Paul. 

No one has ever explained why Paul made but one 
solitary reference to the sayings of Jesus. The greatest 
defenders of the rights of little children are not in- 
frequently considered enemies of both church and state. 

'Let the children first be fed,' He said to the 
Syrophenician. 'And He called a little child unto 
Him and set him in the midst of them' as the type 
and pattern of the Kingdom. 'Whoso shall receive 
one such little child receive th me,' was one of 
His tests of genuine discipleship. It was so human, so 
tender, and full of charm. 



CHAPTER XIV 

MISSING THE MARK 
1f 140 

It is unthinkable that Jesus made an outline of the 
doctrine of sin and left it to be filled in by Paul or 
John or Augustine or Calvin or Luther. In view of the 
tremendous emphasis laid upon this theme by these 
leaders it is remarkably significant that in all His teach- 
ing there are few traces of any abstract instruction on 
the question. In the first three Gospels the word sin 
occurs only about twenty-five times. In the rest of the 
New Testament it occurs 170 times. The difference is 
a matter of emphasis. The nearer men are to God the 
less they see of evil. It was said of God that His eyes 
were too pure to behold iniquity. The same was true 
of Jesus. He saw sin as the Father sees it. He treated 
it as the Father treats it. All the great leaders of the 
world, before and after Jesus saw in the nature of man 
a force that makes for uprighteousness. Platonic, Stoic, 
and Philonian philosophies conceived the spirit of man 
as originally divine, unsmirched and immortal. They 
believed that man possessed a power by which impure 
and sensual thought could be overcome. Paul made sin 
an intellectual abstraction, a theological concept. To 
him the sinful principle was an independent entity — an 
active subject to which any number of predicates might 
be attached. He regarded the natural condition of man 
as in universal subjugation to the bondage of sin and 
death; a fate brought upon the race by the sin of the 
first man Adam, imposed by divine decree and executed 
by demoniac powers. 

205 



206 THE CARPENTER AND HIS KINGDOM 

Jesus only mentioned sin about a dozen times during 
the whole of His ministry, and when He did mention it, 
His attitude seems to have had more in common with 
the Greek conception than with the Hebrew. This seems 
all the more remarkable since Paul was in matters of 
the intellect an undoubted Hellenist. 

Jesus never dogmatised on sin. He assumed it as He 
assumed the Father. He had clear distinctions between 
good and evil, right and wrong. If Adam's disobedience 
wrecked the human race and placed it under a curse to 
all eternity, Jesus never recognised the process. Nothing 
He ever said was more characteristic than that. He 
knew what was in man. He shared men's joy. He wept 
over their sorrows. He came to seek and save that which 
was lost. The lost were those who had wandered away 
from the Father. The religion of Jesus is based on what 
He taught. What He said of sin, therefore, must be as 
fundamental as what He said on love, or life, or religion. 

Nor can we say that what He taught on the subject 
obtains its interpretative value in the light of subsequent 
history. On this as on all other topics He spoke as one 
having authority and not as the Scribes. If Jesus was 
the ultimate guide to God, He was the supreme authority 
on how to get there, and the chief obstacle in the way 
is sin. The Greek word Hamartia, we translate sin. It 
means missing the mark. The tendency to shoot low or 
wide in morals, seems deeply embedded in human nature. 
John the Baptist harangued the multitude to change 
their minds. A literal translation of the word repent is : 
'get another mind.' Jesus went deeper. He told them 
how to do it and how to sustain the change when they 
made it. 

A low aim, therefore, was sin. In shooting at a 
target, from which the figure is taken, the hand and eye 
co-operate. In morals the call is to the will. Repentance 
is a change of mind — from a low aim to a high one, from 
an ignoble to a noble, from a selfish to an unselfish. 

The ten commandments were all negative. They 
were legal deterrents which didn't deter. Jesus added 
to them. 4 A new commandment I bring unto you 



MISSING THE MARK 207 

— that ye love one another.' Love is positive, not 
negative, it is dynamic, not static. Wherever we find 
Jesus discoursing on sin, He is measuring men, not by 
the Law of Moses but by the law of God. When love 
failed to produce a new mind He did not fall back on 
the law of Moses to enforce His teaching. He never 
appealed to the State. His citizenship was of the King- 
dom and His law was love. 

One of the major charges brought against Jesus was 
that He fraternised with sinners. The charge was true. 
Those upon whom society had stamped its ban of dis- 
approval were the recipients of His tenderest solicitude. 
He spoke in warm, tender accents to the woman taken 
in sin. He was quite at home amongst the nondescript 
guests at Matthew's feast. Men and women who had 
violated the law found in Him a friend. He saw the 
motive behind the overt act. Under the conditions in 
which the masses lived — exhaustive toil, scarcity of 
creature comforts, and small outlet for self-expression — 
the people were often goaded into rebellion and crime. 
To such He presented the Kingdom, and with it His 
intimate fellowship. 

With Paul sin is an intellectual abstraction — the key- 
stone of a technological structure, Jesus does not appear 
to have taken that view. He knew the nature of the 
low aim and the power within that makes for evil, better 
than Paul knew it, yet He takes a different view. He 
makes deeper soundings. The moralist sees sin in action. 
Jesus sees it before it acts. He points out that the desire 
that only lacks opportunity is as culpable as the overt 
act. To a great crowd He said : — 

'There is nothing without a man that entering 

into him can defile him: but the things that 

come out of him, those are they that defile the 

man.' 

When He left the multitude and went into the house 
with His twelve friends they at once asked Him what 
He meant ? Jesus gently rebuked the twelve for dullness. 
'Are you without understanding also?' 

That He was speaking of the things of the spirit had 



208 THE CARPENTER AND HIS KINGDOM 

not been quite plain to them. He explains that what 
goes in goes to the stomach. That which comes out 
comes from the heart — out of which come the issues 
of life. 

*That which cometh out of the man, that de- 
fileth the man.' He explains" how. Because the heart 
is the man — the real man. What He sends out is the 
essence of Himself. 

'Out of the heart,' Jesus explains, 4 proceed evil 
thoughts, adulteries, fornications, murders, 
thefts, covetousness, wickedness, deceit, lasciv- 
iousness, an evil eye, blasphemy, pride, foolish- 
ness. All these come from within and defile 
the man.' 

How does the * coming out' defile the man? Because 
the heart of every man is a chamber of imagery. When 
the natural heart is untouched by the divine, its imagery 
is of the self and the self life, and as he sends out his 
images whether in the form of words or thoughts, they 
reproduce themselves in the minds of others. It is quite 
plain, therefore, that the man is denied because he defiles 
others. Sin is anti-social. The process is like taking a 
picture from the wall of one room and hanging it in 
another. If a man's chamber is vulgar, his images are 
vulgar. Any one who has ever been forced to listen to a 
vulgar story knows that it takes many years to remove 
the picture from the mind. Five centuries before Jesus 
came, Empedocles offered this prayer: — 

'But O ye gods, turn aside 
From my tongue 
The madness of these men. 
Hallow my lips. 
And make a pure stream 
Flow from them! 
And thee, much- wooed, 
White-armed Virgin Muse, 
Do I beseech, that I may hear 
What is lawful 
For the children of a day ! 



MISSING THE MARK 209 

Constrain me not to win garlands 
Of honour and glory 
At the hands of mortals 
On condition of speaking 
In my pride beyond that 
Which is lawful and right, 
And only so to gain a seat 
Upon the heights of widsomP 

Evidently some undesirable pictures had been hung 
in the image gallery of the old Sicilian, and he prayed 
that he might have the power to prevent the repro- 
duction of the 'madness.' Peter had a like experience, 
and the Master said, 'I have prayed the Father that 
you shall be preserved!' 

I was a labourer once in a pine forest. The workers 
were white men and negroes. At the close of the day, 
the darkness was lit up by blazing pine logs. Each race 
around its own fire. The colour line was sharply drawn. 
I sat with my race and listened to a foul, impure stream 
of the most vulgar stories. Fifty yards away sat the 
black men singing the songs of a slave race. The melody 
was weird but beautiful and reached out to a world 
beyond, where there are no slaves. The contrast was 
sharp. 'What comes out of a man' in the margin of 
the day usually reveals the pictures in his mind. What 
came out of the white men hurt — what came out of the 
black men helped. It was hard not to feel ashamed 
of one's race. 

If 141 

The Double-Minded 

Jesus warned of the danger of hell, the impure of 
heart, the wilfully rebellious, the proud, arrogant relig- 
ious leaders, the double-minded, the unstable who could 
not make up their minds and those who could not see 
him in His followers, however humble they might be. 
He did not define hell. He did not argue about it. His 
interpreters did. They defined it as a palce and enforced 



2i o THE CARPENTER AND HIS KINGDOM 

their definitions, not as He would by the gentle persua- 
sive power of love but by fire and sword and torture. 

In the great charter He warns men of the results of 
anger. Anger is sin. So is unfair judgment — so is 
impure thought. All of these are the materials out of 
which men forge the chains that bind their own souls 
and the souls of others. They are the corrupt trees 
that bear corrupt fruit. Better to pluck out an eye than 
that it should continue to see only evil. Better to cut 
off a hand than that it should be an offence. There is 
no harangue against social crimes such as theft, or mur- 
der, or adultery. Anger is the womb in which murder- 
ous ideas are born. Covetousness is the mother of theft. 
An impure eye is the image-maker of the sins that cor- 
rupt the flesh — and the image is the origin of the act. 
Even the most intimate of His friends were so slow to 
grasp His idea of the image, that He had to explain it 
as if He were addressing children. Like their contem- 
poraries, they were only concerned with the act. Jesus 
taught them to examine the mental trail along which 
the act travelled. He saw clearer than any of his inter- 
preters have ever seen that men are more easily intro- 
duced into the Kingdom by conviction of righteousness 
than by conviction of sin. It was so much easier to 
enter the Kingdom of God by the persuasion of the 
Master than it is to enter any sect by the door of a 
creed. 

'No man having put his hand to the plough 

and looking back.' 

This type of mind might be a religious type, but it 
fell short of His measurement for the Kingdom. This 
is the type of man who sits on the fence. He cannot 
make up^ his mind. He has one talent and buries it. 
He knows what to do but he refuses to do it. He takes 
hold of the handles of the plough and then looks back. 
He has committed no overt act of sin. He has broken 
no ecclesiastical law — but he is just short of the require- 
ments, and as Jesus said, is unfit for the Kingdom. He 
might make church material. He might have money 
to give or prestige to raise the social tone, but for such 



MISSING THE MARK 211 

things Jesus cared nothing: they did not count. They 
count with us but our standards are not His standards. 
Judged by contemporary standards, the Pharisees 
were the strictest sect of the Jews; they were custo- 
dians of religion, leaders of thought, aristocrats of the 
temple area. The chief trouble with the Pharisees, 
ancient and modern, was a moral astigmatism. They 
were not able to discern the difference between a 
camel and a fly — spiritually. In spiritual values they 
were prone to put the wrong labels on the packages. 
They were almost as resentful of criticism as a modern 
churchman. Yet they themselves were sermon tasters 
and connoisseurs in all matters pertaining to religion. 
While the Master gave His tenderest sympathy to pro- 
fligates and outcasts of all kinds and degrees, He had 
quite a different reception for the religious leaders. 
Hypocrisy always aroused His gentle nature into a 
vehement storm of indignation. He attacked them 
with a scorn and contempt that made men marvel at 
His boldness. He attacked not because He harboured 
the slightest tinge of resentment, but because of the multi- 
tude who were there. For their sakes He gave an esti- 
mate of spiritual values. Just as He did in the house 
of Simon, when there were but a few present. The 
people were continually being fooled by the sophistries 
of the pseudo-religionists. Whenever Jesus entered into 
controversy with the Pharisees, the people saw at once 
the difference. Mere formal profession, then as now, 
blocked the way to God. Jesus undertakes to give real 
values. He calls things by their proper names. These 
professors had less religion than the profligates around 
them. They played and toyed with eternal verities. 
They were sticklers for minute details of ceremonial 
observances, but the essence of religion which is love to 
God and love to one's neighbour they generally knew 
nothing about. Jesus strips the paint from the rotten 
cheek of religious hypocrisy and with keen penetrating 
irony shows the multitude that if they want to get to 
God they must brush these blockheads aside and open 
their hearts to the Father Himself. Like a thunderbolt 



212 THE CARPENTER AND HIS KINGDOM 

His words penetrated the hollow souls of the Pharisees 
and they slunk away, as they did who brought an accused 
woman to Him. No harlot ever shot so wide of the mark 
as did these custodians of the Temple. The morality 
of outcasts was infinitely higher than theirs. Jesus put 
a higher estimate upon their souls. They had less hy- 
pocrisy, they had fewer illusions. An illusion is some- 
thing camouflaged. It is a superficial appearance that 
hides a reality. When the illusion is believed it becomes 
a delusion. The Pharisees had the outward show of 
religion but within they were empty and devoid of the 
essence. 

Despite these judgments and values of Jesus in things 
spiritual we are still confronted with the Pharisee in 
religion. He is still measuring men by creeds and 
dogmas and ceremonies. 



If 142 

A Vision of Judgment 

Jesus laid greater stress upon sins of omission than 
upon any other kind. He painted a word picture of 
a final judgment. It is a wonderful piece of imagery. 
We see the gathering of the nations of the world, we 
see the Son of Man in His glory and accompanying 
Him the hosts of heaven. It is a world festival of 
rejoicing and gladness. It is the great finality. Life's 
struggles are ended and the new era begins, but like 
life itself there is the inevitable note of sadness, a dark 
line in the spectrum. The Son of Man is not only 
King. He is judge also and judgment is as inevitable 
as love. He applies His winnowing fan and divides 
the host. On one side stands the King's friends and 
on the other His enemies — those who are crowned 
with blessing and those who are called accursed. Here 
is Matthew's account — arranged by Dr Briggs: — 



MISSING THE MARK 213 

I 

When the Son of Man shall come in his glory, and all 
the angels with him, 



Then shall he sit on the throne of his glory: 
And before him will be gathered all the nations : 
And he shall separate them one from another, 
As the shepherd separateth the sheep from the goats: 
And he shall set the sheep on his right hand, but the 
goats on his left. 

II 

Then shall the King say unto them on his right hand. 
Come, ye blessed of my Father, inherit the Kingdom: 
Which was prepared for you from the foundation of the 

world : 
For I was an hungered and ye gave me meat : I was thirsty 

and ye gave me drink : 
I was sick, and ye visited me: I was in prison, and ye 

came unto me. 

Ill 

Then shall the righteous answer him, Lord! 

When saw we thee an hungered and fed thee, or athirst 

and gave thee drink? 
When saw we thee a stranger, and took thee in, or naked 

and clothed thee? 
When saw we thee sick and visited thee? or in prison and 

came unto thee? 
And the King shall answer and say unto them, Verily 

I say unto you, 
Inasmuch as ye did it unto one of the least of my brethren , 

ye did it unto me. 

IV 

Then shall the King say also unto them on the left hand, 
Depart from me, ye cursed, into Gehenna, 
Which is prepared for the Devil and his angels : 
For I was an hungered and ye gave me no meat: I was 
thirsty and ye gave me no drink, 



2i 4 THE CARPENTER AND HIS KINGDOM 

I was a stranger, and ye took me not in: naked, and 

ye clothed me not : 
I was sick, and ye visited me not: I was in prison, and 

ye came not unto me. 



Then shall the wicked answer him, Lord! 

When saw we thee an hungered (and did not give thee 

meat), or athirst and (gave thee not drink)? 
(When saw we thee) a stranger (and took thee not in) 

or naked (and clothed thee not) ? 
(When saw we thee) sick (and did not visit thee), or 

in prison (and did not come unto thee) ? 
Then shall he answer and say unto them, Verily I say 

unto you, 
Inasmuch as ye did it not unto one of the least of these, 

ye did it not to me ! 
The judgment scene is more of a parable than a 
vision. The parallel truth is clear and unmistakable. 
It is a pronunciamento on sin. The Son of Man at 
earth's final wind-up asks no abstruse theological 
questions. When the theologians come up for judg- 
ment they are astounded that their creeds and beliefs 
and forms and ceremonies count for nothing — ab- 
solutely nothing. The final test is not what they 
have believed, or imagined they believed. It is not a 
question of what sect they choose, or whether they 
were baptized by immersion or sprinkling — or whether 
they believe that sin began with Adam or with them- 
selves. Sin in this great preachment is lack of courtesy, 
kindness, generosity, and love. And it was so simple, 
so clear, and so easy of discernment that when the 
records began to be written, many of the writers made 
subtle attempts either to explain it away or at least 
to make it seem more profound to the cultured of 
Greece and Rome. It has never been incorporated 
in any scholastic doctrine of sin. It has always oc- 
cupied a secondary place. If God in anger at Adam 



MISSING THE MARK 215 

over the apple episode in the garden, declared that the 
human heart was naturally and inherently bad, Jesus 
does not seem to have known it. On the contrary, 
He assumed that good was fundamental and evil in- 
cidental. He took a little child and explained that 
it was the type of the Kingdom. When they asked 
whether the man who was born blind sinned or his 
parents, He said, 'Neither.' The force He recog- 
nised as evil in man was of the same nature and es- 
sence as the force with which He contended in the 
wilderness. It was a low aim — and the low aim pre- 
ferred the gratification of the desires of the body 
to the fulfilment of spiritual striving. It reduced men 
to a spiritually bankrupt condition. Jesus presented 
an ideal and urged men to strive for it. He asked 
them to strive for perfection, — 'Be ye therefore per- 
fect even as your Father in heaven is perfect.' 
Not to forgive one's enemies, not to be kind, not to 
be tolerant, not to be tender-hearted, not to be loving 
— all these were of sin. To postpone, procrastinate — to 
seek shelter in sophistry instead of the truth, was sin. 
When the Holiness of God was the incentive and men 
did not try to experience it that was missing the mark. 
The teaching of Jesus on sin involves, includes, and 
incorporates a more profound psychology than the 
teaching of either Paul or John the Baptist, or any 
of the long succession of schools founded on their theology. 
It is devoid of fear or threat. The element of con- 
demnation enters but only incidentally. He warns the 
ultra-religious hypocrites, but to all others He held up 
an ideal and urged men to reach it. He held up the 
idea of the good rather than wield a whip. He used a 
whip but that too was an incident. John's preaching 
was very powerful, very effective, but it lacked the love 
element that characterised the teaching of Jesus. The 
former urged men to get out of sin. The latter told 
them how to get out and how to keep out. Darkness 
is the absence of light. One method urged men to expel 
the darkness. The other said, ' Get light, get plenty of 
light,' and the heart that is flooded with light will have 



2i 6 THE CARPENTER AND HIS KINGDOM 

no problem of darkness. One method is negative, the 
other is positive, one was denial, the other affirmation. 
The love, tenderness, and kindness of the Father is a 
greater incentive to pure living than threats of punish- 
ment or warnings of hell. 

Jesus told the religious leaders of His day that they 
had substituted the traditions of men for the com- 
mandments of God, and that is exactly what has been 
done by modern teachers. He said they had shut up 
the Kingdom of Heaven and would neither go in them- 
selves nor permit any one else to enter. He said they 
compassed sea and land to make one proselyte, and 
when he was made according to their tradition he became 
twofold more the child of hell than they were themselves. 

He pointed out that it was the long-prayered, pious 
people who devoured widows' houses. These things 
are incidental to the main theological issues of to-day, 
but they were fundamental to Jesus. There was an 
intense prophetic severity in these utterances that the 
world is as much in need of now as it ever was. 

Sin is centrifugal. It rusts and corrodes everything 
within the orbit of its influence. When He said to 
one who had missed the mark, 'thou art a stumbling 
block to me,' He intimated that the offence had 
affected Him ! Sins of omission are to us rather negligible 
values, but a careful study of His life shows conclusively 
that He laid greater stress on them than He did on active, 
deliberate, and overt acts of sin. To know the will of 
the Father and do it not was as much of a low aim, wide 
aim, at the mark as theft, adultery, or murder. 

The mark we aim at is the Father's will. In doing 
that we aim high and sin is obviated by the active 
pursuit of the good. The lost are those who miss the 
mark and to such Jesus showed the way out — the way 
home to the Father, and no man has ever sincerely tried 
His method and failed. 



CHAPTER XV 

THE MASTER AND MAMMON 

If 143 
The Spirit of Gain 

When Jesus said men could not serve both God and 
mammon He was not delivering a pronunciamento 
against money or wealth. He was speaking of the form 
these things usually assume. Great wealth held in the 
possession of a single person becomes power. It might 
be a power for good, but it seldom is. 

From the beginning of history the spirit of gain has 
been the chief obstacle to God-like life. It has been a 
power that enslaved men's bodies as well as their souls. 
It is a master passion that permeates from centre to 
circumference the affairs of men. 

Mammon is the god of the world. He is the deity 
of the tilted scales, falsely evaluating morals, art, 
industry, and religion. There is no department of 
human life from which the evil spirit is excluded. 
Mammon confronted Jesus, he confronted the disciples, 
and He confronts us. The most pathetic figure in the 
New Testament is the rich young ruler. Jesus saw 
that in all other respects he was good material, but 
the god of comfort, ease, and worldly power held him 
as in a vise. 'How hardly,' Jesus said, 'shall they 
that have riches enter into the Kingdom of heaven.' 

In the book of James we have a picture of Mammon's 
power in the infant church. Men well dressed and hav- 
ing the appearance of wealth were given front seats. 
Men who were poor were treated with scant courtesy. 

217 



2i 8 THE CARPENTER AND HIS KINGDOM 

What a departure from the spirit and teaching of the 
Master! Mammon is now the great god Success. 
Throughout the centuries he has been the chief ingre- 
dient in the poisonous atmosphere in which religion 
lingers, withers, and dies. In his false scales education 
is weighed. In the first place he holds fast in his grip 
the chief educational centres. Without his aid no child 
may enter the ' select ' and ' exclusive ' seats of learning. 
Inspired by Mammon some of the world's best states- 
men have opposed the education of the puor. They 
have assumed that the less they knew the more work 
could be gotten out of them. The value they put upon 
it was not a personal evaluation. They were moved by 
the power behind them — the subtle invisible power of 
the worshippers in the temple of the god of gain. 

The opposition to Jesus was largely prompted by the 
fact that He was the champion of the poor. . He was 
made to feel the power of Mammon because to the 
apotheosis of lucre poverty was the cardinal sin. 

The idea which made the Kingdom 'the antithesis of 
the world' was devoid of that which characterised 
earthly kingdoms. The Kingdom was a complete revo- 
lution in governmental ideas. It was a gigantic dream 
of a spiritual democracy in which money, land, heritage, 
and tangible appurtenances would cut no figure whatever. 

The spirit that lusted for money and the things that 
money could procure: power, place, social distinction, 
and prestige, Jesus names, personifies, and makes stand 
out in bold relief as Mammon — the deification of wealth, 
which is the antithesis of God. 

Mammon has many names. When he hoards we call 
him avarice. When he opens the flood gates of the lower 
self and becomes the incarnation of self-indulgence, we 
call him sensuality. When he talks loudly of what he 
is and what he has, we call him egotism. When he sets 
himself above the law and rides rough-shod over the 
rights of others, we call him crime. 

When his eyes are red and his hands are bloodstained ; 
when armed and federated he marches through plunder, 
rapine, and death to conquest, we call him iLar. When 



THE MASTER AND MAMMON 219 

he exalts brute cunning over the cardinal virtues, when 
he cracks the whip over the backs of factory children 
and exploits for his personal advantage the lives of men, 
when he lies and cheats in weights and measures and 
accounts and schedules, when in business he acts on the 
principle of 'live I, die you,' we call him trade. 

Mammon is not only the god of gain, he is also the god 
of success and respectability. He works for glory and 
despises the inglorious. He is success, and metes no 
mercy to the unsuccessful. He leads the social whirl, 
he sits in the front pew. He makes laws to protect his 
interests. He stands beside the publisher, the author, 
the artist, the legislator, and the clergyman. He asks 
but the question — 'Does it pay?' Everything to him 
has but one value — a cash value. He is the exalted 
guardian of vested rights. He is the arch defender of 
things as they are. He is prudent, careful, and sane. 
To him the Kingdom of God is a myth, and disinterested 
love a chimera. He laughed at Jesus, he laughs at us. 
He is called 'practical' and 'hard-headed.' To him 
virtue is something that can be cashed in the coin of 
the realm. 

'Ye cannot serve God and Mammon,' is no mere 
catch phrase. It is a statement of eternal truth. Blessed 
are the poor, for they have nothing that Mammon can 
get a grip on. Blessed are ye humble, for ye are not 
tempted by the subtle allurements of social distinction. 
Blessed are ye that are hungry, for ye have not been 
corrupted by food that belonged to others. Blessed are 
ye that are persecuted, for God is your champion. 



If 144 
The Respectability of Mammon 

If the Mammon of Jesus' day whipped the world 
with whips — the Mammon of our day lashes us with 
scorpions. Religion is freer and more widespread, but 
Mammon is more deeply embedded in life. Mammon 



220 THE CARPENTER AND HIS KINGDOM 

has become ultra-respectable. To many religious people 
he is God's silent partner. He preaches thrift for the 
poor. The pecuniary virtues have become cardinal. He 
is benevolent and gives of his surplus to those who do 
not worship in his temple. He is patriotic and believes 
that all is fair in war and business. He is a patron of 
art and learning. He transmutes the blood of the 
workers into marble halls, cathedrals, and universities. 
All his writings are piously phrased. All his public 
acts are marked by decorum and order. He quotes 
scripture, and one of his favourite tests is: — 

'The poor ye have always with you.' 

The spirit of Mammon and the spirit of the Master 
are as far asunder as the poles. They are in conflict. 
They are diametrically opposed to each other and can- 
not remain equal tenants of the same heart. Jesus said 
that the meek would inherit the earth. Mammon dis- 
putes the claim. He urges the successful and the strong 
to hold all they have and take all they can get. Jesus 
says, — 

*A man's life consisteth not in the abundance 

of the things which he possesseth.' 
Mammon says it does, and points out that only those 
abundantly blessed in goods receive social recognition. 
'Foxes have holes, and the birds of the air have 

nests, but the Son of Man hath no where to lay 

his head.' 

Mammon says it is a question of efficiency, frugality, 
and thrift. He names great men who began low down 
in the scale of possession and amassed great fortunes. 
Mammon has not only made the possession of great 
accumulations respectable but he has added his bene- 
diction to the process. The early church tried commu- 
nism. Mammon pointed out the foolishness of the ven- 
ture, and introduced the competitive system — which is 
war in industry. There the battle is to the strong and 
the race to the swift, and the weak and slow are gath- 
ered together and cast into the Gehenna of modern 



THE MASTER AND MAMMON 221 

industrial methods. There is a humourous aspect to 
all this. It has the blessed sanction of the friends of 
Jesus. In the peasants' revolt, when the overlords 
slaughtered a hundred thousand labourers, Luther 
was Mammon's chief defender. He said that a prince 
could get to heaven as easily by slaughtering peasants 
as by prayer. His chief literary contribution to this 
bacchanalia of the god Success was a pamphlet entitled, 
Against the murderous thieving hordes of Peasants. 

'A rebel,' said the great theologian and son of a 
miner, 'is outlawed of God and Kaiser. Therefore who 
can and will first slaughter such a man, does right well, 
since upon such a common rebel every man is alike judge 
and executioner. Therefore who can, shall here openly 
or secretly smite, slaughter, and stab; and hold that 
there is nothing more poisonous, more harmful, more 
devilish, than a rebellious man!' His advice was taken 
and religiously followed even to peasants of Belgium in 
1914. 

The peasants asked for 'Divine Justice.' They imag- 
ined a great theologian would understand that. Luther 
replied that the Gospel only guaranteed a spiritual and 
not a temporal emancipation. The result was that the 
peasants totally rejected Luther's kind of God — the god 
he preached to them was Mammon. The workers, the 
world over, with penetration and instinctive insight, 
detect the difference. When they hear this kind of 
preaching or any of its variants, they say: 'Sirs, we 
would see Jesus!' In front of me as I write there are 
three ponderous volumes — a commentary on the New 
Testament. They were written by Dr Ellicott, Bishop 
of Gloucester, a learned leader of the Church of England. 
When this interpreter of Jesus came in contact — not 
with a peasant revolt, but with an effort of labourers to 
organise themselves, he did not advocate murder, but 
he did say that the horsepond was a fitting destination 
for the 'labour agitators.' 

That was about as far as civilised society in England 
would permit him to go. 

When thousands of young ministers have received 



222 THE CARPENTER AND HIS KINGDOM 

from Luther and Ellicott their knowledge of Jesus, 
instead of from the Gospels, little is to be expected. 
The knowledge of Jesus held by both men was tempered 
by the status quo. It was not indifferent to the god of 
gain. There was a little of the spirit of Jesus, a good 
deal of the theology of Paul, and considerable bowing in 
the house of Rimmon ! 

The long laboured attempt of Mammon to 'mod- 
ernise ' Jesus has not met with much success. Mammon 
has succeeded, however, in changing the outward aspects 
of the Kingdom. In Galilee the Kingdom was pro- 
claimed without money — or books, or newspapers, or, 
social prestige. It began as a simple heart to heart, 
mouth to ear, and hand to hand movement. It got 
along without the patronage of rich men. Its warm, 
congenial, democratic atmosphere was not a place in 
which to grow rich or exercise authority, or bestow dig- 
nity. The founder openly fought hypocrisy. He opposed 
the purse-proud as well as the proud of heart. He empha- 
sised wealth of heart, but He knew from his own exper- 
ience amongst men that other kinds of wealth came not 
by honest labour but largely by oppression and trickery 
and deceit. He was not a hater of wealth as such. He 
was a hater of the methods by which wealth was 
acquired.! 

The craze for riches was just as great then as itls 
now, but the opportunities were fewer. With Jesus 
it was not a matter of comfort or lack of comfort. 
He would not have despised a home of His own in 
Capernaum if conditions had been such that He could 
have had one in the spirit of the Kingdom. It was a 
matter of emphasis. Mammon was opposed to the 
simplicity of life as Jesus lived it. He moved the 
disciples to ask the Master what they were going to 
get out of following Him. He whispered in the ear 
of the young ruler and persuaded him to turn away. 
He whispered to Matthew Levi, but Matthew threw 
the shekels aside and chose the life spiritual. 

The appeal to the flesh is insidious. And as the 
inner light burns low and enthusiasm wanes, the desire 



THE MASTER AND MAMMON 223 

for substitutes grows stronger. The early church laid 
more stress upon the theology of Paul than upon the 
doctrine of the Kingdom, but they held fast to the spirit 
of Jesus in the defence of the poor. 

II 145 
Mammon Unchanged 

As organised Christianity departed from the sim- 
plicity of the Master and Christians assumed lordship 
over one another in religious degrees and titles, they 
gradually reached the stage of costly buildings, costly 
furnishings, and costly living. There have been many 
revolts against this tendency. Francis of Assisi em- 
bodied in his crusade much of the fine sincerity and 
simplicity of the Gospels. The Wesleyan movement 
of more recent times was another attempt to gather into 
the Kingdom the poor, the workers, and the social types 
that Jesus gathered around Him in Galilee. Neither 
the followers of Francis nor the followers of Wesley 
have been able to maintain the high spiritual standards 
of their founders. What happened to one happened to 
all. The rich and well-to-do took possession and are 
in possession now. Where Mammon enters he corrupts. 
The demand for money becomes intense and continuous. 
Great buildings and great institutions require great 
exchequers. To these the poor and the toilers can con- 
tribute little. Doves are not sold in the temples, money- 
changing is done in business centres, but the money- 
changers and the exploiters are the rulers of the syna- 
gogues and the toilers are not found there. The whole 
arrangement, while foreign to the ideas of Jesus, is quite 
respectable, quite moral, quite aesthetic, quite proper, but 
obviously quite unlike primitive Christianity. 

The power of Mammon to poison a spiritual atmos- 
phere is just about as it was in the first century. Few 
people wholly escape the conflict. The power is subtle, 
insidious, and deceptive. Millions are unconscious 
that they are under the spell of it. They think in bulk. 



224 THE CARPENTER AND HIS KINGDOM 

Who, being a god, would not rather taint millions with 
pennies than dozens with millions? No, it is not the 
amount. It is the spirit, the kind of spirit manifested 
in getting and holding the amount. God says, Give; 
Mammon says, Get. Both are right. It is the motive 
and purpose behind getting and giving that makes the 
difference. 



CHAPTER XVI 

CONSPIRACY AND MURDER 
II 146 

The Beginning of the End 

To speak of the 'execution' of Jesus is to suggest a 
legal process. There was no legal process. He was 
lynched as the result of a conspiracy. His arrest by 
an armed mob was the first of a series of illegal acts. 

Of the golden chain of intimate friends, the first 
link to snap was Judas. Nothing so acutely pains 
the human heart as the treachery of an intimate and 
trusted friend. Nothing so blights the soul as the 
rejection of disinterested love. The Master's rebuke 
was mild but explicit. Judas betrayed Him with a 
kiss and disappeared. The mob with torches, staves, 
and swords, advanced. 

'Whom seek ye?' He asked. 

'Jesus of Nazareth,' they said. 

4 I am He.' 

Something in the tone of His voice, something in 
the look in His eyes, unnerved the rabble, and they 
shrank back. 

4 Whom seek ye?' He repeated. 

'Jesus of Nazareth.' 

*I have told you that I am He. If therefore ye 
seek me, let these go their way.' 

The brute courage returned and they laid hands on 
Him. Peter, seizing a sword, made a smash at the 
nearest of the rabble, who happened to be Malchus, 
a servant of the High Priest. The blow deprived him 

225 



226 THE CARPENTER AND HIS KINGDOM 

of an ear. Resistance ended there. Jesus surrendered 
Himself into their hands and they led Him away. 

His first arraignment was before Annas — a former 
high priest — who assumed authority on the slender 
thread spun out of the fact that he was the father of 
Caiaphas's wife. He had no more legal right to try 
Jesus than the mob had to arrest Him. Annas perhaps 
was one of the informers. With the other dignitaries 
he wanted possession of Jesus in order to hand him 
over to Rome. It was a savage and fanatical vendetta, 
unscrupulous and illegal. 

The session before Annas was brief. Caiaphas was 
present. Questions were put. 

*I spoke openly to the world,' He said, 'I ever 
taught in the synagogues and in the temple, 
whither all the Jews come together, and in secret 
spake I nothing. Why askest thou me ? Ask them 
which heard me, what I have said unto them. 
Behold they know what I said.' 

Many details are lacking in the narrative. His 
answer to one question displeased a flunkey and He 
was struck on the mouth. His answer to the man 
who struck Him was: — 

'If I have spoken evil, bear witness of the evil, 

but if well, why smitest thou me?' 

John and Peter were present. For some reason, 
unknown to us, John was admitted, but Peter was 
questioned. John spoke to the portress and Peter 
was admitted. At the fire, as he warmed himself, 
he was challenged again. Despite the warning of the 
Master, Peter had not sufficiently fortified himself. 
In a moment of zeal and indignation he drew the sword, 
but by the fire he stoutly denied his discipleship. When 
the cock crew, he remembered the warning and went 
out and wept bitterly. 

From the first stage of the great farce before Annas, 
they conveyed Him across the courtyard to confront 
Caiaphas, the high priest. The second stage was also 
brief. From Caiaphas He was taken before the San- 
hedrim Of the proceedings there no record seems to 



CONSPIRACY AND MURDER 227 

have been made. They met at night, and as the case 
involved the life of the accused, the meeting at night 
was incontrovertibly illegal. There were false witnesses 
whose testimony was inaccurate and contradictory. 
Even the testimony of the Evangelists on what hap- 
pened leaves much to be desired. Legal forms were 
utterly abandoned. Everybody seemed bent on His 
death. They were in a hurry to despatch Him. To- 
morrow might be too late. The multitude might take 
the law into their own hands and frustrate the designs 
of the officials. They were terror-stricken lest He should 
escape. It was now or never. 

Sedition and blasphemy were the two charges. To 
say He was ' tried ' on these charges would be a travesty 
on words. He was accused on them and condemned. 
Where was Nicodemus? If present he was a silent 
partner in the guilt of his friends. Where were the 
disciples? We can account for three, two of whom were 
in moral collapse. 

'Art Thou the Son of God?' He was asked, and 
He answered, 'Ye say that I am,' This to His 
accusers constituted the crime of blasphemy. Yet 
these sticklers for form knew that no man could be 
put to death either on the testimony of one witness 
or on his own alone. The first charge was untrue, 
the second was unjust. Yet He was pronounced worthy 
of death. The verdict was unanimous. 

The sole authority in Judaea who had power of life 
and death in his Hands was not Annas, not Caiaphas, 
not the Sanhedrin, but the Roman Procurator, Pontius 
Pilate. The jus gladii, or right of capital punishment, 
was the principal attribute of Roman sovereignty. 
It was never under any circumstances relinquished. 
Writers of Christian history and leading men of the 
Church throughout its history have considered the 
assassination of Jesus 'unjust but not illegal.' As a 
background for certain theological dogmas this false 
belief served a purpose. The contemporaries of Irenasus 
and Tertullian lavished praise on Judas because by his 
base betrayal he facilitated the sacrifice of his Master. 



228 THE CARPENTER AND HIS KINGDOM 

If 147 
Before Pilate 

From the Sanhedrin they took Him to the Praetorium. 
Jesus entered to confront Pilate, but His accusers 
remained outside. Their hatred of their victim was 
cooled somewhat by fear of Levitical contamination. 
As they stand outside straining at the gnats of eccle- 
siastical convention and swallowing whole the camels 
of hatred and murder, we must not think that they 
monopolised that sort of thing. Thousands of just such 
crowds with just such minds have harassed and perse- 
cuted and murdered and they have done it in the name 
of the Nazarene who stood before Pilate. 

The bandying of words between Pilate and the 
rabble is interesting and brings out the character of 
both. Not once is the sentence mentioned. It seems 
to have been understood. 

'What accusation bring ye against this man?' Pilate 
asks. 

'If this man were not an evildoer, we should not 
have delivered him up unto thee.' 

'Take him yourselves and judge him according to 
your law.' 

'It is not lawful for us to put any man to death.' 

Nor was it lawful to pronounce sentence of death, 
nor to condemn on the testimony of informers, nor 
on testimony of the accused, nor to meet at night, 
nor to execute sentence on the same day sentence was 
delivered, nor even to arrest without authority in a 
capital case. From the brutal assault in the garden 
until they nailed Him to the Cross, every stage in the 
conspiracy, every move in the faked trial, was a violation 
of law. The sentence was, in the first place, illegal, 
and, in the second place, unjust. 

The dialogue between the world's supreme gentleman 
and the truckling flunkey of bloodthirsty Rome is 
interesting : — 



CONSPIRACY AND MURDER 229 

'Art thou a king then?' 

'Sayest thou this thing of thyself,' answered Jesus, 
'or did others tell thee of me?' He had no need, 
no desire to hedge. If the question was Roman, No; 
if from the Jews, Yes. 

'Am I a Jew?' said Pilate, 'Thine own nation and 
the chief priests delivered Thee unto me. What hast 
Thou done?' 

'My kingdom is not of this world,' Jesus answered; 
'if my kingdom were of this world, then would my 
servants fight, that I should not be delivered to the 
Jews; but now is my kingdom not from hence.' 

A King, yes, of a spiritual Kingdom of God, a King- 
dom He had proclaimed openly to the world. 

'Every one that is of the truth heareth my voice,' 
said Jesus, and Pilate asked: — -~ 

'What is truth?' 

Without waiting for an answer he went outside and 
said to the rabble, 'I find no crime in Him/ 

The irresolute, vacillating procurator saw a loop- 
hole of escape from his dilemma. Jesus was a Galilean. 
Herod was regent of that province, and forthwith he 
sent the accused to Herod. Before that lecher Jesus 
open His mouth not at all! He was ridiculed, insulted, 
taunted, and, clad in white, as a further humiliation, 
was retured to Pilate. 

'Ye brought unto me this man,' said Pilate to the 
accusers, 'as one that perverteth the people; and behold 
I, having examined him before you, find no fault in him 
touching the things whereof ye accuse him, no, nor yet 
Herod; for he sent him back unto us; and behold, nothing 
worthy of death hath been done by him. I will therefore 
chastise him and release him.' 

Why chastise Him if no crime could be found in 
Him? There was no attempt to discover or discuss 
a single proof of His guilt. Pilate might just as well 
have said, 'He is innocent, but to please you I will 
whip Him ! ' Herein lies the cowardice of the procurator. 
He held the power of exoneration and release in his 
hands, but instead of using that power, threw the re- 
sponsibility back on the infuriated mob. 



2 3 o THE CARPENTER AND HIS KINGDOM 

ir 148 

The Mob Mind 

'Now at that feast the Governor was wont to 
release unto the people a prisoner, whom they would. 
And they had then a notable prisoner, called Barabbas. 
Therefore when they were gathered together Pilate 
said unto them, Whom will ye that I release unto you? 
Barabbas or Jesus which is called Christ?' 

Pilate had no desire to save Jesus. If he had, he 
never would have given the mob any choice. He 
would not have wavered before them. He knew enough 
about the mass mind to know that to have two opinions 
before such a solid concentrated mass of envy meant 
to that mob weakness and only weakness. He must have 
known the bent of that fury. It was bent on murder. 
He played with it, toyed with it. His wife seems to have 
had some conscience. He had none. 

Three things held intact the mob madness : the evident 
vacillating weakness of the Procurator, the powerful 
suggestions of the chief priests, and the mob conscious- 
ness that it was evidently winning out. The weakest 
minds in the crowd had become strong, and the strongest 
had become weak. Mind became fused in mind. The 
minds had become a mind and the mind cried 'Crucify 
Him ! ' Everything Pilate did, every time he opened his 
mouth or waved a hand, he made more compact and 
added to the fury of that mass mind. 

A crowd may be beaten or cowed by a strong per- 
sonality if the crowd be, as this one, in the wrong. 
Even a mediocre mind in the position of authority such 
as Pilate held, might have thrown them back on their 
history, their laws, their prophets, or their literature. 
All of these were the greatest in history, and by their 
injustice and madness they were throwing them into the 
scrap-heap. 



CONSPIRACY AND MURDER 231 

There was a hollow mockery in the cry, 'We have 
no king but Caesar.' Pilate was not blind to its hy- 
pocrisy. If he had really desired to deal justly with 
the prisoner he would instantly have replied, 'Then 
as your King's representative I shall deal with the accused 
as you would have me deal with you.' If he had had 
any stamina, any courage, any conscience, that was the 
moment to hold the balance level. But the moment of 
opportunity passed. In a twinkling it was gone, for 
ever. 

He called for water and went through the theatrical 
ceremony of washing his hands of the guilt of the accused 
and of the accusers. It was a vain show and deceived 
nobody. 

Where at that moment were the throngs who had 
hailed Him as deliverer? Where were the thousands 
who had followed Him and hung on His words? Where 
were the Friends of that sacred circle? Not a single 
voice was raised in protest, not a friendly face was 
to be seen. The poor He had befriended, the rich 
He had healed, the heartbroken He had comforted 
— where were they? Why were they silent? 

' The People is a beast of muddy brain 
That knows not its own strength 
And therefore stands 
Loaded with wood and stone: 
The powerless hands 
Of a mere child guide it with bit 

And rein; 
One kick would be enough to break 

the chain, 
But the beast fears 
And what the child demands 

It does; 
Nor its own terror understands, 
Confused and stupefied by bugbears vain. 
Most wonderful ! With its own hand 
It ties and gags itself; 
Gives itself death and war 



232 THE CARPENTER AND HIS KINGDOM 

For pence doled out by kings 
From its own store. 

Its own are all things 

Between earth and heaven; 
But this it knows not, 
And if one arise to tell this truth 

It kills him unforgiven.' 

So wrote Campanella, in the light of the facts sur- 
rounding another martyrdom in the fifteenth century. 
There is little to choose between the hatred, bitterness, 
and murder in the hearts of the crowd that burned to 
ashes the body of Savanorola and the ethics of the mob 
that murdered Jesus. One was a Christian mob, the 
other a mob of Jews. One had the light of fourteen 
centuries of His gospel, the other had but a few years. 
Both were murdered in the name of religion. The 
Florentine mob was as devoid of reason, religion, and 
humanity as was the mob in Jerusalem. Cardinal 
Romolino was as weak, corrupt, and cowardly as Pilate. 
Between them there is little to choose. Florence, though 
as guilty as Sodom, survived. The Jews were scattered 
to the four corners of the earth, and Rome fell with a 
crash! It is said that the Florentines shuddered at the 
cruel death of their prophet. Only the rocks of Golgotha 
shuddered at the death of Jesus. 



1 i49 
Behold the Man! 

Pilate had Jesus scourged. Then He was arrayed 
in a purple garment and a crown of thorns placed on 
His head. When brutal whips had done their work 
and the effort to humiliate and degrade was complete, 
the Procurator pronounced the epilogue to the pro- 
ceedings. Pointing to the Master, he said: 'Behold 
the man!' The effect was a spontaneous outburst of 






CONSPIRACY AND MURDER 233 

vindictive wrath. It was like throwing a piece "of meat 
to hungry lions in a cage. 

'Crucify him! Crucify him!' they shouted. More 
equivocation, more useless questionings, more shoutings 
for revenge, for execution, and the cowardly master 
of subterfuge released unto them the murderer Barabbas 
and handed over the stainless Galilean to the fury of 
his enemies. 

There are variations in the accounts. There are 
matters of detail that matter little. What difference 
does it make when they flogged Him, or spat upon 
Him, or clothed Him in white or purple? The sequence 
of savage events is of little interest. 

It is of importance to observe, however, that this 
outrage occurred when the genius of Rome as a law- 
maker was at the very acme of its world-wide fame. 

The entrance of Roman soldiers denoted the end 
of the farce, and Jesus was led away — away to the death 
of a criminal, without being tried either by Roman or 
Jewish law and in direct and flagrant violation of both. 

The procession was a mixed multitude, a hetero- 
geneous mass of priests and soldiers, men, women, 
and children, Jews and Gentiles — scoffing, hooting, 
and jeering. When the weight of the heavy ugly cross 
began to weaken the Master, there was not a man in the 
crowd who would lend a hand. As a rift in the dark 
cloud it would be comforting to know that Simon of 
Cyrene had volunteered, but Matthew tells us that the 
soldiers commandeered him and forced him to carry it, 
as Jesus was no longer able. 

The two thieves were evidently robust rogues and 
needed no assistance. The commandeering of Simon 
is the first hint we get of the form of death to be met. 
Crucifixion was a Roman method. When Rome finally 
quelled the slave revolt under Spartacus, the victors 
spiked six thousand slaves to as many crosses and left 
them standing along the roadsides, as symbols of her 
power over life. Slave-masters carried these ugly gibbets 
as part of their equipment. The slave business furnished 
the largest number of victims of the extreme penalty 



234 THE CARPENTER AND HIS KINGDOM 

and to the death of a slave as much humiliation and 
degradation as possible was always attached. 

At Golgotha the victims were spiked to the wood 
and the crosses were erected. Perhaps it was merely 
fortuitous, but Jesus was put in the centre, between 
the two thieves. That was the place He would have 
chosen. By the stupid, the exploiter, and the oppressor, 
however religious, respectable, or socially circumstanced, 
sympathy with suffering has always been considered 
collusion with crime. He was ' numbered with the trans- 
gressors.' He was of the very texture of the social group 
called the people of the ground. We are just now be- 
ginning to understand that as a leader, a political leader, 
of the poor, He was more feared than as an innovator 
in religion. 

The superscription over His head was in Hebrew, 
Greek, and Latin: — 

'Jesus of Nazareth, King of the Jews' 

He probably had that hanging about His neck all the 
way. The Jews wished to alter it, but Pilate decreed 
that it should remain as it was, and it remained. 

Let us see who are there now, to whom He may 
cast a loving glance in the bitterness of His martyrdom. 
There were Mary Magdalene, Mary the wife of Cleopas, 
Salome the mother of John, Joanna the wife of Chusa, 
John, and Mary the Master's mother. 

As in His life, so in the throes of death He manifested 
that strange mingling of the Divine and Human. His 
sympathy with His fellow-victim, His care for His mother 
as He committed her to the care of John, and His 
'Father, forgive them, for they know not what 
they do.' His tenderest thought was not alone for 
those who loved Him, but for the violent, misguided 
mob. 

How all the past must have crowded the mind of 
His mother! All the countless incidents of those thirty 
years of obscurity when she alone knew of His visions, 
His ideals, His hopes. How meagre the records are in 



CONSPIRACY AND MURDER 235 

the things we would like to know. We are told what the 
rabble said. We know the soldiers cast lots for His 
garments, but of what His mother said or of what she 
was thinking, not a word. 

Nor are we quite clear in our minds about the nature 
of the agony that brought to His lips the opening words 
of Psalm XXII. Taht also may be of minor consequence. 
What the thinking world will reject, however, is the 
theory that the Father's plan was accomplished by fraud, 
injustice, cupidity, falsehood, and murder. Spiritual 
superstructures built on that foundation have failed, 
always will fail, and ought to fail. 

When the crushing weight of Jewish and Roman 
hatred fell upon Him, He bore it with fortitude and 
divine resignation, and while He prayed for His enemies 
He was evidently conscious that He was being foully 
assassinated. 

To such a life there is no death. There is a change, 
a transition, the temple crumbles, disintegrates, and 
falls; the spiritual occupant bursts the limitations 
of the flesh and becomes free. 

At the Third hour He belonged to the ages. 

The incident of the cross manifested neither the 
contempt of the Greeks nor the dread of the Jews for 
what they called death. It was a human incident 
divinely faced. To the disciples and followers who 
were scattered and in hiding it seemed at the time the 
end of all things. It was really the beginning of all 
things. An old age passed out. A new age was ushered 
in. The hopes they entertained of political and material 
domination fell to the ground. But new hopes of a 
spiritual empire that would capture the hearts of man- 
land arose and took their places. 



236 THE CARPENTER AND HIS KINGDOM 

f ISO 

The First Easter Morn 

1 The idea of His life shall sweetly creep 
Into their study of Imagination, 
And every lovely organ of His life 
Shall come apparell'd in more precious habit, 
More moving — delicate and full of life, 
Into the eye and prospect of their souls 
Than when He lived indeed.' 

The Master returned. He appeared to the fear- 
stricken Friends. His presence in the spirit inspired 
them with new life. It gave them a super power that 
burned in their hearts like a flame of fire. 

We are still debating whether He came back in a 
broken physical body or in an astral body of a purely 
spiritual nature. The majority of people enrolled in 
the churches of organised Christianity seem to cling 
to the theory of a physical resurrection. If it is not 
insisted upon in the creeds, it is thundered from the 
pulpits that the immortality of the soul is conditional 
on the reanimation of the body in a physical resur- 
rection. The theory of the physical corporeality of 
the person of the returned Master is probably based 
on the request for food and the invitation to handle, 
given in Luke XXIV. Paul's thesis on the resurrection 
is the greatest in Christian literature. The Gospels 
were not in existence when Paul wrote, but he does 
not appear to have ever heard the story or tradition 
mentioned by Luke. 

The Master did not walk out of the tomb on Easter 
morning. He was never in it. Nor can we say literally 
that He 'returned,' for He had never been away. He 
was hidden from His friends, hidden and obscured by 
their doubts and fears and cowardice. Having the root 
of the matter in them, these things were passing clouds 
on a spiritual sky. When He appeared they realised 
the reality of things invisible, they became possessed of 
evidence of things not seen. Death having no terror 



CONSPIRACY AND MURDER 237 

for Him, had no longer any for them. The integuments 
of illusion perished at the first meeting of the reunited 
friends and the passion for righteousness had a new birth. 

While Jesus was with them in the flesh the disciples 
were mere children in the faith. A few hours before 
His arrest they were bickering about place and pre- 
eminence in the Kingdom. Despite His constant com- 
panionship and incessant teaching they did not seem to 
grasp the full meaning of His mission. Surpassing 
as was the greatness of His personal influence before the 
cross, it paled into insignificance when compared to the 
power of His return from the shadow of death. 

The record of the psychical experiences or spiritual 
visitations is scant, and what He said seems little different 
from what He had said already while with them in Caper- 
naum. Yet the effect was different — different and 
immeasurably greater. Under the spell of the new 
impulse this handful of unlettered men went out to con- 
quer the Roman Empire for the Kingdom of God. 

The fervour and heat of the new evangel became 
irresistible. It broke the shell of its Judaistic origin, 
and pressed out and beyond the frontiers of the Fathers 
into the remote corners of the earth. With hearts 
aflame and tongues tipped with ineffable tenderness, 
these working-class ambassadors of light preached and ex- 
emplified the religion of the pure heart and the open hand. 

It is not too much to say that this divine enthusiasm 
immediately following the Resurrection was the vessel 
destined by the Father to preserve to the world the 
religion of Jesus. 

Violent reactions set in later. The first apostles 
had hardly passed away before sacerdotalism made its 
appearance. Then out of the infant church grew a 
book, and out of the book grew an intricate network 
of dogmas. In the course of time we had an infallible 
book, an infallible church, and an infallible head of a 
large section of the church. Out of these grew an author- 
ity and a discipline which in the course of centuries were 
responsible for more bloodshed, cruelty, and perversion 
than was ever laid to the charge of the Sanhedrin at 
Jerusalem. 



238 THE CARPENTER AND HIS KINGDOM 

U 151 

Hope for the Future 

'The time cometh that whosoever killeth you 
will think that he doeth God service. And these 
things will they do unto you, because they have 
not known the Father, nor me.' 

The custodians of the faith, blind and ignorant, 
not only did not know Him or His Father, but they 
were determined that the great mass of the people 
should remain ignorant even of the New Testament 
records. 

'If God spare my life,' said William Tyndaie, the 
father of the English Bible, to a priestly antagonist, 
'ere many years I will cause a boy that driveth the 
plough to know more of the Scriptures than thou doest ! ' 
And he did, but it cost him his life. He was forced to 
fly from England in order to do it. The English New 
Testament was born in Cologne in the year 1525. In 
1536 Tyndaie was strangled at the stake and his body 
burned to ashes. His dying words were, 'Lord, open 
the King of England's eyes.' 

His New Testament was publicly burned at Paul's 
Cross, and the more they burned the larger grew the 
editions. A chronicler of that day named Hall gives 
this quaint description of a bishop's zeal : ' The Bishop, 
thinking he had God by the toe, when indeed he had 
the devil by the fist, said, "Gentle Mr Packington'* 
(Packington had volunteered to buy up copies for him to 
burn), "do you diligence and get them; and with all my 
heart I will pay for them whatsoever they cost you, for 
the books are erroneous and naught, and I intend cer- 
tainly to destroy them all and to burn them at Paul's 
Cross." Packington came to William Tyndaie and said, 
"William, I know that thou art a poor man, and hast a 
heap of New Testaments and books by thee, for the which 



CONSPIRACY AND MURDER 239 

thou hast endangered thy friends and beggared thyself. ' ' 
"Who is the merchant?" asked Tyndale. "The Bishop 
of London," said Packington. "Oh, that is because 
he will burn them," said Tyndale. "Yea, marry," 
said Packington. "I am the gladder," said Tyndale, 
"for these two benefits shall come thereof: I shall get 
money to bring myself out of debt and the whole world 
will cry out against the burning of God's Word; and the 
overplus of the money that shall remain to me shall make 
me more studious to correct the said New Testament and 
so newly to imprint the same once again, and I trust the 
second will much better like you than ever did the first.* ' 
And so forward went the bargain, the Bishop had the 
books, Packington had the thanks, and Tyndale had the 
money.' 

The right to print and the right to read were secured 
at great cost and took centuries to accomplish. The 
right to think and the right to interpret made slower 
progress. Many of the staintliest lives that ever 
graced this earth were given in the effort to reduce the 
high cost of thinking. 

Bloodshed and the more violent forms of persecution 
are no longer permissible, but a sort of spiritual hierarchy 
still posts its sentries at the gates of heaven to keep out 
Tyndale's ploughboys who have equal rights to read 
but unequal rights to think and interpret. 

These sentinels wear the livery not alone of one 
dominant sect but of all sects. They are all equally 
dogmatic and equally insistent upon dogmas. There 
can be no religion without dogma, but, strange as it 
may appear in the twentieth century, the one great 
dogma of Jesus — the Kingdom of God — is a cancelled 
passport ! 

Nevertheless, the situation is full of hope. The 
sects are becoming courteous amongst themselves. 
An eminent Christian minister of a small sect has been 
permitted by an act of courtesy to preach in a cathedral ! 
That is the sensational incident of the day. It is unique, 
and perhaps illegal, but full of hope. 

In all sections of divided Christendom there are 



2 4 o THE CARPENTER AND HIS KINGDOM 

men and women of light and leading, prophets, priests, 
and thinkers, who are re-thinking Jesus. They are 
exploring the vast continent of the human soul. They 
are digging, out of the rubbish of ages, the great big 
fundamental things that Jesus taught. A few more 
centuries and the world will reap what is being sown 
and the Saviour of the World will come into His own. 
On the shoulders of these torch-bearers there rests as 
great a responsibility as that which rested on the shoul- 
ders of the circle of intimate Friends at Capernaum. 



CHAPTER XVII 

WHO THEN ARE CITIZENS OP THE KINGDOM? 
1 152 

The Theology of Jesus 

The theologians locked the truth up in words. They 
imprisoned it. Jesus appealed to the imagination. 
His images were windows through which all men could 
see God. He himself was God's word — the express 
image of His Person. He called His followers Friends. 
This Friendship was based on love, love to the Father 
and to each other. Love is the earth and moisture and 
sunshine that give life to the plant of discipleship. He 
did not call men to believe in a book. Life cannot be 
measured by a book. Life can be measured only by life. 
He did not call men to belief in miracles, or prophesies, 
or hells, or heavens, or ecclesiastical organisations. 
One may believe all these things and yet miss the main 
thing. He did not call men to a belief in Paul or Luther 
or Calvin, or the creeds they formulated. One may 
believe all these men taught and yet not be His friend 
or disciple. He called men to a belief in the Father and 
in each other, and in Him. 

God as Father was the Alpha and Omega of the 
theology of Jesus. It was His 'body of divinity.' 
The poetry, sweetness, and charm of the word Father 
as Jesus pronounced it, arrested the attention of men. 
There was nothing of affection or familiarity in current 
forms of worship. To most men Jehovah was a benevo- 
lent despot. He was removed from the affairs of men. 
Jesus made Him familiar, He brought Him near. When 

241 



242 THE CARPENTER AND HIS KINGDOM 

the Jews in Old Testament times spoke of God as Father 
it had an official ring. Isaiah speaks of 'the mighty- 
God, the Everlasting Father.' He was conceived as a 
jealous God who could laugh at calamity and mock 
when the heart was filled with fear. Wrath and judg- 
ment and terror were associated with His name. He was 
the God of the nation and could be approached through 
priests and ceremonies and sacrifices. He sat on a 
throne, and thrones are far removed from the common 
affairs of common people. If Jesus had been a theologian 
He would have removed God still farther from our per- 
sonal sight and reach by definitions and disquisitions 
beyond the comprehension of common folk. He would 
have divided God into persons and qualities and aspects. 
Being the Son of God He simply spoke of Him as Father. 
His Father and our Father. He assumed God as we 
assume our fathers. He talked of Him not as a far-off 
Deity sitting on an embroidered divan, ruling suns and 
moons and stars, but as an ever-present Parent who 
was interested, not merely in nations, but in men and 
women and children. He lived in God's atmosphere. 
He practised God's presence. The God consciousness 
was evidenced in all He did and in all He said. His 
programme was to transmit God consciousness to others 
— not by the process of fear, but by love. The fear 
element obscures God. Love enables us to understand 
Him. Only by the domination of love over fear can we 
see things as the Father sees, and think as the Father 
thinks. Just in proportion as we substitute a theologian 
for Jesus or a theology for religion we get fear. Men 
despaired of an intimate association with Deity. Jesus 
persuades them that the Father is interested in the 
individual man. He tells them that God is not un- 
conscious of the fate of a sparrow. If He cares for a 
sparrow He surely cares for a human being. That 
appeals to men. It gives them a new hope, a new point 
of view. He says, 'Even the hairs of your head are 
all numbered.' 

He was surrounded by the poor, the day labourers, 
and the social outcasts. They had a struggle to live 



CITIZENS OF THE KINGDOM 243 

the physical life. He assures them that faith in the 
Father assures them of food for the body and food 
for the soul. His meaning is never hidden in words. 
He is no mystic dealing in empty, pious phrases. Having 
suffered, He knew how to sympathise with suffering; 
having been tempted He understood the conflict between 
the higher and the lower nature. Jesus sees in the Father 
a heart so tender and loving that He makes the sun to 
shine upon the unjust as well as upon the just. All are 
His children. All are equally dear to Him. He drives 
this home by the most charming stories of large-hearted 
men. He shows how the strength of God is demonstrated 
in helping weak men out of great difficulties. He paints 
a word picture of the yearning heart of the Father as 
He awaits the return of the soul that has strayed out 
of the path. This dependence and interdependence — 
this affinity of the divine and human, this nexus of God 
and man, is the quintessence of the Gospel — the Good 
News. 

How can we acquire it? they asked. He told them. 
He that receiveth Me, receiveth the Father. Inter- 
pretation of personal life may be done in two ways. 
We may explain the life of others in the terms of our own 
personal experience, or we may reproduce the life of 
another in experiments of our own. Jesus was a perfect 
translation of the will of the Father. When men saw 
that, they were encouraged to make spiritual experiments 
in their own lives. They accepted His view of Himself 
and the Father. As they began to think His thoughts 
their inner being changed into His likeness. As a flower 
absorbs sunshine and moisture and reproduces them in 
beauty and colour, so men's lives changed in essence and 
outlook. The change was spiritual and subtle. It came 
without observation. The alembic in which these 
changes were wrought was prayer, and the process was 
faith. Jesus used no theological or philosophical terms 
in directing men's minds towards this change. He 
simply practised the life and men seeing the life experi- 
mented with it, and the experiments became experience 
and the experience became' faith, and faith connected 



244 THE CARPENTER AND HIS KINGDOM 

them intimately in a bond of filial love with the Father. 
It is in filial experience then that the Father is found. 
The other half of the truth is, that in the discovery of 
the Father, we discover also that all men are our brothers 
and all women our sisters. It is a family consciousness, 
an enlarged outlook. The thing that hurts and hinders 
others will hurt and grieve us. What gives them joy 
will gladden us. Cultivated and developed, this con- 
sciousness evolves in love, and love is the essence of the 
life of the spirit. This otherism does not confine itself 
to humans. It takes in the life of all created things, 
animate and inanimate. In the tint of a sunset, the 
contour of a mountain, the surge of the sea, the song of a 
bird, and the colour of a flower, we see the Father's hand 
and we rejoice in His handiwork. A filial, childlike 
trust in the Father's plan; a simple experience of* love 
that responded to the beauty of the world and was solici- 
tous of the claims of others ' needs, was the open sesame 
to the mystery of God. In this sense Jesus was the 
Way. He was its revelation and its exemplification. 
In the most exquisite poetic language He drew attention 
to the beauty of the world and in personal touch with 
men He exemplified God's solicitude and care for 
human needs. To experience these things was to 
know God, and to know Him is a vastly different 
thing from knowing about Him. There is no way but 
the way of experience, and no door but the door of 
doing. 'If ye know these things, happy are ye if ye 
do them.' How shall we know? they asked, and He 
told them they would know by the same method as 
the man who found treasure in a field, and in joy went 
and sold all that he had and bought the field. He told 
also of a man who did the same thing in order to possess 
a pearl of great price. The value of the thing discovered 
gave joy, and joy was evidence. In their search for 
the Father that was all the evidence they would need, 
and as He had it, and they saw the evidence in Him, 
they experimented upon themselves. They were all 
different and would find different avenues of approach, 
but all approaches led to the same goal. Some found 



CITIZENS OF THE KINGDOM 245 

God in a dynamic way, others came to the knowledge in 
quietness and confidence. The joy of knowledge came 
more slowly to some than to others. 

He told men to have faith in God — to assume Him 
as He did. He advised them to enter their quiet 
rooms and shut the door and there alone with God 
tell Him the story of their hearts in prayer — and 
prayer was a pouring out of a human heart to the 
heart of the divine. It was the act of relating needs 
to the source of supply. It was communion. There 
were times when perspiration rolled down the cheeks 
of Jesus when He was in the act of prayer, and the 
drops of sweat were likened to drops of blood. Some- 
times He prayed all night. Often He prayed alone. 
In urging His disciples to pray, he said, * Knock and it 
shall be opened unto you, seek and ye shall find.' 
When their minds tire and their souls get weary and 
the result is doubt, He reminds them that any father 
will give his children what is good for them, and then 
asks them if they think the Heavenly Father has less 
heart — less affection? Things needful for the body 
were essential and the disciples and the people around 
them were being constantly reminded of their needs 
and of the relation between demand and supply. A 
man asked Him to arbitrate an economic question 
between him and his brother. Jesus refused. He said 
He was not a divider of property and added: — 

'Beware of covetousness, for a man's life does 
not consist of the things that he possesseth.' 

Then He told the story of the rich fool who accumu- 
lated goods and starved his soul. Using the story as 
a contrast between the needs of the body and the 
needs of the soul He spoke of God's care for the 
ravens and the lilies and the grass. 'O little faithed 
ones,' He said, 'your Father knoweth what ye are 
in need of.' Then He explains the first step — not in 
the economic process but in spiritual progress. The 
nations of the world emphasise economics. That is 
necessary, but in the Kingdom first things are first. 



2 46 THE CARPENTER AND HIS KINGDOM 

'Seek ye the kingdom, and all these things will 
be added unto you.' 

It is a matter of emphasis. The labour of the hands 
would still be necessary to procure food, but food for 
the soul was more necessary and the adoption of the 
Kingdom was the point of departure to the eternal jour- 
ney of the soul. It was the Way to God, and He Himself 
was the door. To enter was the beginning of God- 
consciousness. It was to think His thoughts and do 
His work. To those who wanted to locate the Kingdom 
He said it was within them. To another who wanted to 
locate the Father, He said : — 
'God is Spirit.' 

The Samaritans located on Mount Gerizim the special 
earthly abode of God. To the Jews it was in Jerusalem. 
To Jesus it was neither and both. Spirit can not have 
a local habitation. Being Spirit it becomes necessary 
to worship Him only in spirit and in truth. 



If iS3 
The Father's Love 

For the mind of the beginners Jesus drew a series 
of word pictures of the Father. The best of them is the 
father of the prodigal. His father-heart never ceased 
to mourn the absence of the son. The boy's return 
finds him as he left him — loving, tender, and true. 
The father-heart is full of joy and overflows into merry- 
making. This, Jesus says, is what happens in heaven 
when the Kingdom enters your heart and reveals the 
Father. He likens Him to a man who forgives those 
who owe him money, and in the pattern prayer he 
taught the disciples to ask the Father to cancel their 
debts. They were to cancel the debts of others and to 
give and lend and ask nothing in return. Thus to share 
in the work of the Father was to glorify Him. When 
Rome and the hierarchy should arrest and arraign them 



CITIZENS OF THE KINGDOM 247 

they were not to worry over the form of words used in 
their defence. 

'The spirit of your Father which is within you 
will speak.' 

In this way He identified the spirit of man with, 
the spirit of the Father. The Spirit speaking in them 
was another evidence of unity. 

'If ye know me ye know the Father also.' 
was another self-evident truth that their minds compre- 
hended and their eyes beheld. Looking out into the 
future, He saw them lose some of that unity, and He 
prayed that they might be one — one in purpose as 
were the Father and Son. 

The records are fragmentary. There is little recorded 
about God's intimate relation to the great world around 
them. When He speaks of God caring for birds and 
flowers and grass we have a suggestion of much that is 
not recorded at all. The suggestion is enough. The 
Kingdom did not furnish text-books on science. It 
was purely a philosophy of the soul and the soul's 
relations, and the chief relationship was the relationship 
of men and women and children to the Father. 

At the heart of the Kingdom was the King, and the 
King was God, and God was a loving, forgiving, generous 
over-Parent, whose chief concern was His subjects, 
and His subjects and citizens were the pure in heart* 
the ready of hand, and the sincere seekers after truth. 
God, as Jesus described Him, was an atmosphere in 
which the soul found health and healing and strength. 
It was all so plain, so understandable, and so human-Ska. 

On the eve of His great crisis He spoke of the cup 
which the Father had given Him — the cup of sacrifice, 
but the cup of joy came from the same Fatherly hand. 
He lived and moved in the Father's presence. He 
was at one with Him in life and purpose. He changed 
the abode of God from a corner in the Temple out 
into the open world — out into every home, every heart, 
every city and village, every mountain and meadow. 
Wherever the heart of man grew weary or suffered pain, 
there was the Father. Not any longer the awful Deity 
of the Jews merely, but the Father of the human race! 



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